Letter in the Financial Times

Letter: EBRD must own up to the failure of its policies

From Kristen R Ghodsee and Mitchell Orenstein, Professors of Russian and East European Studies, University of Pennsylvania, US

Beata Javorcik, chief executive of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is correct to draw attention to the region’s demographic collapse (“Eastern Europe could grow old before it becomes rich”, December 3). However, this collapse was caused in large part by the policies advocated by the EBRD. Her statement that “after communism collapsed in 1989, central and eastern European countries enjoyed two decades of rapid economic growth and development” contradicts the EBRD’s own data. In the EBRD’s region of activity, most countries experienced a devastating transitional recession that dwarfed the US Great Depression in both length and magnitude. Several EBRD countries still have not recovered. These recessions caused mortality to spike, birth rates to plunge, and millions to emigrate in search of jobs. Dr Javorcik deflects blame from EBRD policies by blaming populism and poor governance, but the negative demographic trends started decades before the recent populist reactions.

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