Countries in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region will record positive growth in 2011, says Ms Theodore Ahlers, the World Bank Director of Strategy and Operations in Europe and Central Asia.

 Ahlers made the projection at the Annual Spring Meeting of the IMF and World Bank on Saturday in Washington D.C.

She said, however, that some countries in the region would be vulnerable to the rising food and energy prices.

“Rising food and energy prices could put 5.3 million more people into poverty across emerging Europe and Central Asia.” 

Ahlers recalled that for most countries in the ECA region, growth returned in 2010 following a sharp decline in 2008 and 2009.

She said the region’s annual growth of around 4.5 per cent was much lower than that of other regions in 2010, noting that projections for 2011 to 2013 indicated a slightly stronger performance.

The bank director said that growth was more tepid in Central and South-Eastern Europe than in the Commonwealth of Independent States, where high commodity prices “have lifted net export, increased remittance flow from migrants and boosted private consumption”.

She added that higher food and energy prices were sources of vulnerability for net importers as it threatened to increase poverty, particularly in lower income economies.

According to her, this will add more pressure to macroeconomic policy management across the region.