Nicholas Watson in Sofia
Mon, 15th Mar -- The offices of the Bulgarian prime minister may be just across the road from those of the president in Sofia, but a metaphorical chasm has opened up between the two institutions as the ruling GERB party insists it will press on with a plan to impeach President Georgi Parvanov.

Jaroslaw Adamowski in Warsaw
Mon, 15th Mar -- As Poland's biggest private bank with a market capitalisation of over €33.5bn, Bank Pekao shares some of its bison logo characteristics: while solid and robust, the banking giant is also thickset and sluggish. Alicja Kornasiewicz, the new CEO of Pekao, wants to change that.

Ian Bancroft in Belgrade
Mon, 15th Mar -- Despite the heady optimism that accompanied Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Serbia last October during celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary of Belgrade's liberation by the Red Army, the six months since have been marked by a bout of wintery cold realism regarding Serbia's eastern prospects.

Clare Nuttall in Almaty
Fri, 12th Mar -- There is a window of opportunity to diversify Kazakhstan's economy as the crisis ebbs and before commodity prices shoot up again, the EBRD's country director for Kazakhstan tells bne, and the bank plans to invest up to $1bn to support the government's development plans.

Bogdan Turek in Warsaw
Fri, 12th Mar -- Poland is revelling in the interest being shown by construction companies from outside the EU to build its highways at prices cheaper than those offered by EU or even domestic companies - a development that's likely to lead to a major shake-up of the Polish construction industry.

Ben Aris in Moscow
Thu, 11th Mar -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appeared on telly at the start of March to call on Russians to buy a Russian-made car as the Kremlin's rescue plan for the beleaguered sector moves into high gear.

Bogdan Preda in Bucharest
Thu, 11th Mar -- It all looks pretty positive in comparison to Greece: Romania got another two instalments totalling €2.3bn from the IMF at the end of February, pushing the central bank's reserves to an all-time high of almost €30bn. But IMF cash won't be the miracle cure to pull the country out of the crisis.

Nicholas Watson in Prague
Wed, 10th Mar -- Reports in March that 10 bidders are interested in buying a 21% stake in Turkish lender Garanti Bank confirms the huge interest that foreign investors have in the country's banking industry. And a look at the sector's latest financial results shows just why.

Matthew Day in Warsaw
Wed, 10th Mar -- Large parts of CEE appear to be sitting on one of the world's largest deposits of shale gas, and this has got the energy world excited. To quote one executive attending the "III CE Gas Summit 2010" in Warsaw in February: "It is a bit like discovering there's life on Mars."

Samantha Shields in Tbilisi
Tue, 9th Mar -- Tbilisi's mayor, Gigi Ugulava, is hoping a scheme to provide loans for property development will help preserve the city's elegant yet crumbling historic centre and breathe life into a local economy whose construction sector was badly hit by the global economic crisis.

Clare Nuttall in Almaty
Tue, 9th Mar -- As one of only two European countries to actually grow in 2009, Albania's government regards now as a good time to issue its first-ever international bond. To maintain that strong growth, though, analysts warn Tirana needs to step up the reform process.

Guy Norton in London
Mon, 8th Mar -- Veteran Russian fund management group Pharos Financial and Dubai-based agribusiness specialist Miro Asset Management have teamed up to launch the Pharos Miro Agriculture Fund to tap into the evolving agricultural investment theme.