Pushing forward reforms in emerging Europe will be high on the agenda for EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti when he leads a Bank delegation to the World Bank and IMF 2013 Annual Meetings in Washington this week.
The meetings will provide an opportunity to take the temperature of the global economy and assess the impact of economic policy decisions on the economies of the transition region.
Growth among the EBRD economies remains tepid. EBRD officials in Washington will emphasise the need to rekindle the reform process which has been stifled in the region for the last five years of crisis.
A further stagnation of reforms would be a major risk to the transition region. It is important to break out of a cycle of higher unemployment, reduced credit and declining investment and also to improve the overall investment climate.
In this environment, a revival of reforms will be critical to reinvigorating growth and attracting sustainable levels of foreign investment at a time when the environment for investment has grown increasingly competitive.
In order to address this issue, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and the EBRD have joined together in a two-year, €30 billion investment programme that is both providing much needed credit and supporting reforms in the context of projects.
In Washington, the three institutions will provide an update on the first results of this Joint IFI Action Plan for Growth, launched in November 2012 to support the recovery and prepare the way for more robust future growth in central and south-eastern Europe.