The COVID-19 pandemic has sunk the global economy into the deepest recession in eight decades. In the emerging and developing countries of Europe and Central Asia, GDP is expected to contract 4.4 percent in 2020, World Bank Group says.

Regional output collapsed in the first half of 2020, as growing domestic outbreaks and pandemic-related restrictions caused domestic demand to plummet, exacerbated supply disruptions, and halted manufacturing and services activity. The sharp decline in remittance inflows—which account for about 10 percent of GDP in the region excluding the Russian Federation and Turkey—contributed to the slide in retail sales. The economies hardest hit were those with strong trade or value chain linkages to the Euro area or Russia and those heavily dependent on tourism or energy and metals exports. 

Economies that were slower to implement measures to stem the spread of the virus suffered more widespread outbreaks, higher death rates, and steeper declines in activity than economies that did so more rapidly, as restrictions to contain the pandemic had to be more stringent, according to the report.

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Source: World Bank Group