Flames out, but smoke still rising. That is how eastern Europe looks after huge outside intervention to douse worries in debt and currency markets. An imf board meeting on November 5th approved a lightly conditioned $16.5 billion bail-out for Ukraine. Austria has offered a €100 billion ($129 billion) package for its banks, which are owed $290 billion by east European borrowers: Erste Bank took up a €2.7 billion equity injection on October 30th. In Hungary, which has also received an imf bail-out, markets firmed as parliament passed a tough fiscal package, based on an expected 1% fall in gdp. Serbia, which is in talks with the imf, said it would not need extra cash, though it might draw on its $695 billion deposit at the fund.
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