to the rescue the cesee countries deployed rather large fiscal packages, including i. a. tax cuts, wage subsidies and short - time working schemes. at their maximum usage, such schemes covered, for example, page 2 von 8 up to 15 % of the workforce in slovenia and slovakia, up to 20 % in romania and about one - third in croatia. of course, the size of fiscal packages varied according to the fiscal space available. monetary policy reacted as well. in several countries quantitative easing via outright government bond purchases emerged as an important pillar of monetary policy. moreover, macroprudential measures were adopted that cushioned the impact of the crisis on both banks and borrowers. the cesee countries also introduced moratoria which played an important role in administering – metaphorically speaking – first aid. since the moratoria only provided temporary relief, they have since been extended and better targeted. however, it was not only domestic policies that came to the rescue, but also international cooperation and liquidity support which were negotiated in a timely manner by international financial institutions, such as the imf and the ebrd, as well as with the ecb. regarding the latter, let me draw your attention to the liquidity arrangements between the ecb and the cesee countries, including bilateral swap and repo lines and the newly established precautionary backstop facility eurep. as a case in point, the ecb agreed on new swap lines with bulgaria and croatia in spring and early summer, and on new repo lines with albania, hungary, north macedonia, romania and serbia. this support helped stabilize international capital flows for these countries. the global nature of the crisis impacts on cesee via gvcs and policy spillovers after this brief review of the most recent economic developments in the cesee region, let me come back to the second distinguishing feature of the current crisis – its global nature. this brings me directly to this year ’ s ceei which addresses the topic of “ cesee in the covid - 19 crisis – the role of the eu and global spillovers. ” in this context, i would like to focus on three issues : i ) the role of global value chains ( gvcs ) ; ii ) the role of monetary policy spillovers ; and iii ) the role of eu funds. 1. the role of gvcs first, the cesee countries are among the countries with the highest degree of economic integration through trade, foreign direct investment (

expects a downturn similar to that forecast by the imf for 2020, but a more protracted recovery in 2021 and 2022. this forecast is subject to substantial downside risks stemming from the uncertainty concerning the further spread of coronavirus. unique features : a health crisis truly global in scope the current crisis has two unique features that distinguish it from all preceding crises of the past decades : it started off as a health crisis, but has immediately morphed into an economic crisis, and it seems to be unprecedented in terms of its global coverage, simultaneity and economic severity. let me first elaborate on the first distinguishing feature : the stringent containment measures in response to the health crisis set the ground for a major economic downturn. the current surge in infection numbers, especially in many countries of the cesee region, does not bode well for a change in the crisis response in the near future : we may see more stringent containment measures over the winter, as has already been witnessed in the czech republic and slovakia. thus, the substantial downside risks are, in part, already materializing. this will aggravate the economic burden. let me now move on to the second distinguishing feature : the crisis is truly global in nature. hence, we are confronted with a simultaneous shock to both domestic and external demand. in addition, an unprecedented degree of uncertainty is weighing negatively on consumption and investment. as a result, especially small, open and strongly integrated economies – like the cesee countries – are highly vulnerable in economic terms. before relating these two features to the topic of this year ’ s conference, let me briefly review the most recent economic developments in the cesee region. largest recession since the early 1990s in the second quarter of 2020, several cesee countries reported the largest quarterly decline in economic activity since the early years of transition in the 1990s. despite the depth of the gdp decline in the second quarter of 2020, the cesee region still reported more benign real gdp decline figures than the euro area ( – 7. 3 % compared to – 11. 8 %, quarter on quarter ). the summer months allowed for a breather ; however, the swift economic recovery is likely to be short - lived. this is, at least, indicated by the most recent readings of activity as well as sentiment indicators. against the background of rapidly rising infection numbers, improvements in these indicators have stalled in the past few weeks ( schreiner et al., 2020 ). economic policy has come