Eastern Europe particularly hit by the crisis

The global economic and financial crisis has not hit all countries to the same extent. The French daily Le Monde writes that the states of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics have been hit the worst by the crisis: "Africa, the most underprivileged continent of all, has not suffered the most from this formidable recession. No, the worst hit were Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. According to prognoses for 2009 released in October by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), South Africa's economy will only shrink by 2.2 percent. ... In comparison, the countries of Central Europe and Central Asia ... are experiencing a major catastrophe. The drop in GDP there has been enormous. ... A financial storm is brewing that is bringing German, Austrian, Swedish and French banks to lower their credit limits."

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