Early signs point to steep economic downturn

There are encouraging signs that the authorities in Central Europe have brought the virus under control and policymakers are slowly starting to ease lockdown measures, which will support a recovery in activity. It's a different story in Russia where the number of new infections is showing no sign of slowing and the government has extended its lockdown. Despite these differences, no economy will escape a collapse in output in Q2 and there is growing evidence that the hit to regional GDP this year will be on a similar scale to the economic fallout which followed the collapse of communism in the early 1990s.