Press Room

The Microfinance Information Exchange has just released the 2009 Eastern Europe & Central Asia Microfinance Analysis & Benchmarking Report.

This report, produced by MIX and CGAP, explores the themes of market structure, credit risk, currency risk, funding risk, and policy trends as they pertain to the microfinance industry in the five sub-regions of ECA: the Balkans, Central & Eastern Europe (CEE), Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Russia.

The 2009 report also examines the effects of the global financial and economic crisis on microfinance in the region; by the end of 2008 ECA countries faced bank failures, tightening of credit, slowdown of economic activity, increases in unemployment and food prices, and decreases in remittances. After the onset of the crisis in the summer of 2008, countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as well as Russia were quickly affected due to their close financial and trade ties to Western Europe and the United States. Countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia, whose economies are highly reliant on remittances and trade with Russia, were hit by the crisis toward the very end of 2008 and into 2009 due to the decrease in transfers from abroad as well as local currency depreciation.

For more microfinance data from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as other related publications from MIX, please visit the region page on MIX Market.