Hungary Leads East EU Economic Slide Amid War in Ukraine

  • Polish economy contracted at end-2022 like Hungary, Czechs
  • European commission forecasts euro area avoiding recession

Shoppers inside the Great Market Hall in Budapest. Hungary has suffered surging consumer prices.

Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg
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Soaring inflation, higher interest rates and supply-chain snarls spurred by the war in Ukraine pushed most of the European Union’s biggest eastern economies into contraction in the fourth quarter.

Poland’s economy shrank 2.4% from the previous three months — much worse than the 0.5% forecast in a Bloomberg survey — for its second non-consecutive decline last year. It economy grew 2% on an annual basis.