About this report

About this report

The EBRD seeks to foster the transition to an open market-oriented economy and to promote entrepreneurship in the economies where it invests. To perform this task effectively, the Bank needs to analyse and understand the process of transition. The purpose of the Transition Report is to advance this understanding and to share our analysis with partners.

Responsibility for the content of the report is taken by the Office of the Chief Economist. The assessments and views expressed are not necessarily those of the EBRD. All assessments and data in the online country assessments are based on information as of late October 2020.

Terms and conditions

See www.ebrd.com

Disclaimer

The contents of this publication reflect the opinions of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the EBRD.

© European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
United Kingdom
www.ebrd.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Such written permission must also be obtained before any part of this publication is stored in a retrieval system of any nature.

Designed and produced by Blackwood Creative Ltd and the EBRD.

Illustrations: © Blackwood Creative Ltd

Abbreviations: For charts in this Transition Report, the abbreviations used for each economy follow the ISO 3166-1 three-letter economy codes published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Note: The complex coding required for some of our online charts may limit their ability to display in some browsers and to export successfully. For all maps in this website, the designations employed and the presentation of material in the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the EBRD concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers.

Note: Terms, names, charts and maps used in this report to refer to geographical or other territories, political and economic groupings and units, do not constitute and should not be construed as constituting an express or implied position, endorsement, acceptance or expression of opinion by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or its members concerning the status of any country, territory, grouping and unit, or delimitation of its borders, or sovereignty.

Hyperlinks to non-EBRD websites do not imply any official endorsement of or responsibility for the opinions, ideas, data or products presented at these locations, or guarantee the validity of the information provided. The sole purpose of links to non-EBRD sites is to indicate further information available on related topics.

Acknowledgements

The Transition Report 2020-21 was prepared by the Office of the Chief Economist of the EBRD, with contributions from other EBRD departments and under the general direction of Beata Javorcik.

The editors of the report are Ralph De Haas and Alexander Plekhanov.

Philipp Paetzold provided research assistance.

The writing teams for the chapters, boxes and annexes comprised:

Chapter 1

Tea Gamtkitsulashvili, William Megginson, Nicholas Monioudis and Alexander Plekhanov (team leader), with contributions from Gaurav Jain.

Box 1.1 was prepared by Zsoka Koczan and Nikola Vujic.
Box 1.2 was prepared by Nicholas Monioudis.
Box 1.3 was prepared by Philipp Paetzold.
Box 1.4 was prepared by Margherita Calderone.
Box 1.5 was prepared by Cevat Giray Aksoy.
Box 1.6 was prepared by Philipp Paetzold.
Box 1.7 was prepared by William Megginson.
Box 1.8 was prepared by Cağatay Bircan, Ralph De Haas and Nathaniel Young.

Chapter 2

Gian Piero Cigna, Pavle Djuric, Zsoka Koczan (team leader), Philipp Paetzold, Nikola Vujic and Yuliya Zemlytska, with contributions from Milot Ahma and Hanna Volchak.

Box 2.1 was prepared by Philipp Paetzold, Nikola Vujic and Zsoka Koczan.
Box 2.2 was prepared by Kjetil Tvedt.
Box 2.3 was prepared by Philipp Paetzold.
Box 2.4 was prepared by Markus Eller and Thomas Scheiber.
Box 2.5 was prepared by Tea Gamtkitsulashvili, Gaurav Jain and Alexander Plekhanov.
Box 2.6 was prepared by Rika Ishii.
Box 2.7 was prepared by Keuno Lee and Philipp Paetzold.
Box 2.8 was prepared by Simon Commander.

Chapter 3

Cağatay Bircan (team leader), Ralph De Haas, Ebru Işleyen and Victoria Robinson, with contributions from Alexander Stepanov.

Box 3.1 was prepared by Cağatay Bircan and Orkun Saka.
Box 3.2 was prepared by Cağatay Bircan and Ralph De Haas, with contributions from Eda Gulsen and José-Luis Peydró.
Box 3.3 was prepared by Ralph De Haas, Karolin Kirschenmann, Kamola Makhmudova, Alison Schultz and Yana Tamulyavchute.

Chapter 4

Sam Fankhauser, Beata Javorcik, Jörn Onken and Helena Schweiger (team leader), with contributions from Russell Bishop, Ksenia Brockmann, Ian Smith and Anna Vasylyeva.

Box 4.1 was prepared by Cevat Giray Aksoy and Jörn Onken.
Box 4.2 was prepared by Helena Schweiger, with contributions from Ksenia Brockmann and Ian Smith.
Box 4.3 was prepared by Craig Davies.
Box 4.4 was prepared by Damin Chung and Valerie Mueller.
Box 4.5 was prepared by Russell Bishop and Anna Vasylyeva.
Annex 4.1 was prepared by Helena Schweiger.
Annex 4.2 was prepared by Jörn Onken.

Structural reform

Umidjon Abdullaev (team leader) and Anna Sali, with contributions from sector and regional economists and analysts of the Economics, Policy and Governance (EPG) Department.

Box S.1 was prepared by Anna Sali.

The online country assessments at tr-ebrd.com were prepared by the regional economists and analysts of the EPG Department and edited by Peter Sanfey.

Editorial, multimedia and production guidance for the Transition Report 2020-21 was provided by Dermot Doorly, Hannah Fenn, Cathy Goudie, Dan Kelly, Nigina Mirbabaeva, Viktorija Quartly, Jane Ross, Natasha Treloar, Jonathan Wells, Bryan Whitford and Anthony Williams in the EBRD Communications Department, and by Matthew Hart and Helen Valvona. The report was designed and print-managed by Blackwood Creative Ltd; www.weareblackwood.com.

The report benefited from comments and suggestions from the EBRD Board of Directors and their authorities, the EBRD staff and staff from the European Commission, European Investment Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group as well as Saul Estrin, Dirk Roettgers and Claudia Trentini. The survey of legal frameworks governing state-owned enterprises was completed with the assistance of EY Russia, GRATA International, law firms and members of the South East Legal Alliance, and Nestor Advisors and their legal partners Antis Triantafyllides & Sons LLC, Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen, Law Offices of George Jabre & Partners, Cabinet Abdellatif El Quortobi, Cabinet Hedda-Ellouze Ellouze & Belajouza-Felli, and A. F. & R. Shehadeh.

Glossary

ALIO
All Public Information In-One (a public disclosure system established by the South Korean government, whereby public institutions are obliged to disclose a range of financial and non-financial information on a quarterly or annual basis)
AML
Anti-money laundering
ATQ scores
“Assessment of transition qualities” scores
BAU
Business as usual
BBC
British Broadcasting Corporation
BEPS II
Banking Environment and Performance Survey II
BIS
Bank for International Settlements
CCS
Carbon capture and storage
CEB
Central Europe and the Baltic states
CFT
Countering the financing of terrorism
CO2
Carbon dioxide
EBRD, the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
EEC
Eastern Europe and the Caucasus
EIB
European Investment Bank
ESG objectives
Environmental, social and governance objectives
EU
European Union
EU ETS
European Union Emissions Trading System
FATF
Financial Action Task Force
FDI
Foreign direct investment
GDP
Gross domestic product
GET
Green Economy Transition approach (an EBRD initiative)
GHG
Greenhouse gas
IATA
International Air Transport Association
ICT
Information and communication technology
IEA
International Energy Agency
IFI
International financial institution
ILO
International Labour Organization
IMF
International Monetary Fund
ISIC
International Standard Industrial Classification
KPI
Key performance indicator
LiTS
Life in Transition Survey
M&As
Mergers and acquisitions
NDCs
Nationally determined contributions
NOCs
National oil companies
NUTS 2
Second level of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics
OECD
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OeNB
Austrian National Bank, Oesterreichische Nationalbank
PEPs
Politically exposed persons
PIAAC
Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies
PPP
Purchasing power parity
R&D
Research and development
SEE
South-eastern Europe
SEMED
Southern and eastern Mediterranean
SMEs
Small and medium-sized enterprises
TCFD
The Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
TFP
Trade Facilitation Programme (an EBRD programme)
UNCTAD
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UN DESA
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
UNFCCC
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

 

Country abbreviations

For charts in this Transition Report, the abbreviations used for each economy follow the ISO 3166-1 three-letter economy codes published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Note: Terms, names, charts and maps used in this report to refer to geographical or other territories, political and economic groupings and units, do not constitute and should not be construed as constituting an express or implied position, endorsement, acceptance or expression of opinion by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or its members concerning the status of any country, territory, grouping and unit, or delimitation of its borders, or sovereignty.

Contact us

EBRD website

www.ebrd.com

Switchboard/central contact

Tel: +44 20 7338 6000

Other enquiries

See the Enquiries page

Office of the Chief Economist

Tel: +44 20 7338 6037
Email: economics@ebrd.com
Chief Economist: Beata Javorcik

Last updated on 10 November 2020