Trend towards bigger deals and more fund investment continues, as deal value rises by half to give best Q1 since 2013.
But pandemic has delayed restart of convergence with Western Europe until 2023.
The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus will hike its key interest rate by 75bp from April 21 to 8.5% to combat rising inflation. In addition, the bank’s overnight lending rate will be increased to 9.5% and the overnight deposit rate to 7.5%.
Poland is deploying troops to a new camp close to the Belarusian border that will inflame already poor relations as President Alexander Lukashenko cracks down on the Polish minority.
Belarus has announced new rules on forming political parties after several opposition figures said they planned to set up new parties.
Ukraine has announced that it will not hold further peace talks in Minsk within the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group.
A third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is sweeping through Emerging Europe. While Russia is expecting to reach herd immunity in the next two months, most other countries of the region have only just started their mass immunisation programmes.
The total number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases has exceeded 320,000 with the country counting as many as 995 more new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the health ministry reported on March 29.
Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said that the opposition is making no attempt at any dialogue with Belarus' self-appointed President Alexander Lukashenko, but is focusing on appealing directly to those working in his administration.
Belarusian police arrested over 200 protesters during Belarus’ Freedom Day demonstrations on March 25, the first big protests of the spring season, although the turnout was disappointingly small.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko named former minister of the interior and presidential aide Yuri Karayev and former health minister Vladimir Karanik as possible successors if he were to stand down as president.
The moderate GDP setbacks in 2020 imply that for some CEE countries there will not be such drastic recovery and rebound effects in 2021 as in hard-hit countries in Western Europe.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is calling for online talks between self-appointed President Lukashenko's regime and the opposition.
With economies primed to rebound as pandemic restrictions are loosened, consumer prices could rise even further, reawakening an issue that has long been ignored.
As the heating season is close to ending Ukraine is still importing large amounts of power from Belarus, despite a promise to break its connection to the Belarusian and Soviet era grid.
The Belarusian opposition has a very short list of demands: Belarus' self-appointed President Alexander Lukashenko must step down, political prisoners must be freed and new elections must be held.
The officially backed Belarusian candidate for this year’s Eurovision song contest, Galasy ZMesta, is likely to get booed off the stage if it is allowed to compete.
International multinational firms are coming under increased pressure to break business ties with Belarus as opposition leaders apply a "name and shame" campaign as part of their struggle to oust incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko.
Nexta Telegram channel video by Belarus opposition follows success of Navalny's 'Putin's Palace' expose of Russian president.
Emerging Europe has a growing number of female politicians taking a stand against corruption and authoritarianism.