Immediately after the onset of a strong negative event (whatever the nature of such an event), analysts’ forecasts deteriorate sharply. Usually this deterioration corresponds to the extremely pessimistic scenario. But, fortunately, extremely pessimistic, as well as extremely optimistic scenarios rarely take place in practice. The coronavirus pandemic that broke out in Russia in spring of 2020 was no exception. As the economy adapts to new conditions (and in the course of accumulation of statistics), understanding of the true scale of the problems comes. And now it has become clear that current problems of the Russian economy are serious, but they are not catastrophic. Moreover, the Russian economy goes through the 2020 crisis about 1.5-2 times easier than the economies of the US and the EU. This is due to the fact that the share of the service sector (which was most affected by the coronavirus pandemic) in the Russian economy is relatively small.

Slovakia is interested in making the most of its transit capacity and diversifying its sources of revenue from natural gas transportation. To this end, it seeks to increase the degree of integration into regional European gas markets, while investing in the flexibility and reliability of its own GTS. In the medium term, having achieved a high level of interconnection of the national GTS with neighboring countries and natural gas supply lines, Slovakia can offer gas transportation services in all directions (north-southeast-west) through its territory, while diversifying its sources of origin. Eustream believes that over the next 10 years, natural gas will maintain its important position in the energy balance of the European Union and will support the trend of low-carbon economic development.

The largest decline in industrial production among EU member-states is illustrative of the economic crisis in Slovakia, which is developing against the general background of the recession in the world economy. As of June 2020, Slovak industrial production decreased by 33.5% as compared to the same period of last year. A similar negative trend is observed in other Central and Eastern European countries, in particular in Hungary (-27.6% of industrial production), Romania (-27.4%), and the Czech Republic (-25%), which precede Slovakia in these figures. The main tool for balancing public finances and stabilization of the situation in the economy of the Slovak Republic is the use of EU aid funds.

In 2020, there will be significant changes in the Polish energy sector, which, according to our experts, will have a long-term effect on Poland’s energy policy in the next 5-10 years. After the formation of the new Polish government of Mateusz Morawiecki, the basics of energy policy as well as plans to reform energy companies and develop new energy sectors were presented. As a part of implementation of the European policy of decarbonization of the economies of EU member states, Poland is trying to make the most of the financial resources of relevant EU funds, as well as to take measures to consolidate energy business under the control of the government.