Transition Report 2007

The Transition Report offers an in-depth analysis of economic progress in 29 countries from central Europe to central Asia. Drawing on the EBRD's experience as one of the largest investors in the transition region, the Report provides comprehensive analysis of the transition from centrally planned to market economies.

This year's Report makes extensive use of the 2006 EBRD/World Bank Life in Transition Survey (LiTS), which comprised interviews with 29,000 people in 29 countries. The survey provides a unique insight into how the transition has affected people's everyday lives and attitudes. Are they happier now than they were in 1989? Have their living standards improved or deteriorated and what are their expectations for the future?

The Report analyses how people's levels of satisfaction, well-being and views about the role of government vary across the transition region. It identifies the groups that have benefited or suffered most and investigates how the changes in people's lives have affected their attitudes towards markets, democracy and support for further reform.

The dramatic changes that have taken place in the labour market are also analysed, from the job losses that accompanied the closure of lumbering state-run enterprises to the emergence of new opportunities in the private sector. The Report analyses how changes in the job market have influenced people's attitudes and outlook, their levels of trust and expectations for government policy. It also examines how public services can be improved and modified to meet some of these expectations. It discusses ways of involving the private sector in the delivery of traditional public services and looks in particular at the opportunities to forge public-private partnerships in areas such as health care.

The final part of the Transition Report consists of country-by-country assessments of the latest progress in structural reform and macroeconomic developments for each of the EBRD's 29 countries of operations. Extensive tables and charts provide the latest data on GDP, employment, inflation, the trade balance, foreign direct investment and many key economic indicators.