Description:
This report takes stock of enterprise
sector performance in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA)
region and its key drivers: access to finance,
infrastructure, and labor. It is the second of two
complementary reports that examine selected trends emerging
from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance
Survey (BEEPS) data that are of immediate policy relevance
to ECA countries. Both reports draw primarily on information
from data collected prior to the crisis. This report also
uses data on employment and access to finance collected
during the crisis in a subset of ECA countries. The global
financial crisis has had enormous consequences for
firms' access to finance, the availability of qualified
workers, and the ability of governments to provide (and of
private sector to obtain) reliable infrastructure services.
The extent and impact of these constraints is yet to be
determined but their presence at a time of economic growth
suggests they may re-emerge during the post-crisis economic
recovery. The BEEPS captures information on a number of
aspects of the business environment. This report highlights
the elements of firm finance, labor regulations and skills,
and infrastructure that are covered by the BEEPS
questionnaire. Where possible, the data are supplemented
with data from other sources. The report covers a lot of
ground, and several broad findings from the analyses stand out.