Countries in the region are benefitting from impressive advancements in terms of creating jobs, registering new cars and adopting positive monetary policy. Poland is due to publish its unemployment data for October and for the third quarter at 10 AM CET today. As the story of U.S.
As for the auto industry, new car registrations in the EU skyrocketed by a record 1.4% YoY. Yet all this growth happened from January to October 2025. The CEE7 countries, without Serbia, had a much stronger average increase of 5.4% over the same time frame. Although the overwhelming majority of CEE countries had strong growth in new car registrations, nearly 8% on average, Romania and Slovakia saw contractions. These declines are mainly due to fiscal consolidation measures and tax hikes that hurt the sales of durable goods especially.
Regional Employment Trends
Poland’s outlier unemployment figures are due soon and will go a long way in shaping the picture of labor market health across the region. Analysts are looking for these numbers to paint a picture of the overall economic landscape. On the upside, in October the country recorded a healthy 5.4% y-o-y rise in real retail sales. This is reflective of strong consumer demand that will help support further improving labor market conditions.
Serbia recently reported a stunning 10.4% y-o-y increase in nominal gross real wages in September. This obvious rush indicates that citizens’ purchasing power is increasing! This is particularly critical now, as accelerated wage growth would urgently increase highly needed consumer spending and economic activity in Serbia. For the very small companies like NIS, this is tough, because they are literally in maintenance mode through Saturday.
Monetary Policy and Market Responses
Similarly in Czechia, central banker Seidler pointed out that monetary policy should be at least mildly restrictive. This positioning is in part a response to inflationary pressures, but a need to cool off the economy and respond to drastically changed market conditions. As part of this monetary tightening, Hungary’s 10-year yields reached 7%, while Poland’s 10-year yields experienced a decline of nearly 15 basis points, indicating differing responses to economic challenges across the region.
The economic environment was further complicated by dramatic changes in relevant currencies. The EUR/HUF fell as low as 382, and the EUR/PLN to 4.22. These developments are likely to have further impacts on investor sentiment and trade flows across CEE.
Electric Vehicle Adoption Grows
In fact, electric vehicle registrations have all but exploded from January through October 2025. This is all part of a record-setting year for battery electric, hybrid and plug-in models. This direction mirrors the international push for more sustainable transport options. This is an indicator that consumers are increasingly eager to grab greener choices.