The International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive director, Christine Lagarde, has praised the courage of eastern European countries in how they are coping with the economic crisis, assessing that "the worst has probably passed", the French news agency AFP reported.
Five years after the onset of the crisis, the worst is probably behind you, a majority countries (in central and eastern Europe) have renewed the growth, Lagarde said in her address to bankers and journalists in Bucharest on Tuesday.
Only two countries, Croatia and Slovenia, are likely to be in recession in 2013 against eight ones being in recession last year, she added.
The average growth rate in eastern European countries in Q1 2013 was positive, while the European Union's GDP fell by 0.1%.
Latvia and Lithuania with the respective positive growths of 1.4% and 1.3% top the ranking of the countries going out of recession.
The IMF downgraded its forecasts for the global economy and for the eurozone last week.
