Productivity gains in Central Europe

Times have passed when Central and Eastern European countries tried to overwhelm Western European markets with cheap mass products, concludes a study by the Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies (WIIW). Export products of the new EU member states are of excellent quality nowadays and meet average demand in the Union. This is partly due to a big increase in productivity, the study claims. Productivity in foreign-owned Central and Easter European companies is not any more worse than that in Western European companies, WIIW said. (VGO)