The IMF together with the World Bank worked hard to stabilize the economies of these countries, devise economic policies and build modern institutions, thus transforming many of these economies into today’s very successful market economies. Owing to a common history and its geographic location, Austria has a particular interest in the stability and economic progress of the transition economies.
Strange as it may now seem in light of subsequent events, a wave of concern about inflation swept financial markets in the middle of last year. Many countries were grappling with the lift in oil prices, which were reaching their peak last July. That was starting to reduce growth but also push up the general level of consumer prices in the advanced countries.