The financial institutions in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) will not see major difficulties in dealing with the economic slowdown, given the rather healthy macroeconomic environment in this side of the continent. But it just a matter of time until the problems in the Western Europe will be reflected in the CEE banking systems. This is one of the conclusions in the "CEE Banking" report made by Wood Company, called "Buckle up, we're going downhill".

In brief:

- apart from Hungary's OTP, the slowdown is still yet to come for most CEE banks. Thanks to sound macroeconomic environment and few imbalances, , however, the pressure should be mild and CEE banks are likely to have no major problems to overcome the slowdown.

- CEE banks were affected by the crisis, along with the banks in the US and the Western Europe, but their earning remained rather stable;

- The economic slowdown will affect both the earnings and the assets;

- The income growth will decrease 10% during the following years, the credit mass growth will be reduced from the current 20-30% to 10-20% in 2010;

- The economy in Hungary and the Czech Republic will suffer more than Poland, under the pressure of the Euro slowdown.

Click here to read the report