Due to their close economic and financial links with Western Europe, the Central and Eastern European countries were also fully affected by the global economic crisis. In addition to the heavy reliance on exports to the European market, the CEE economies are primarily dependent on capital flows coming from Western Europe, which were reduced considerably over the course of the global financial crisis. Preliminary figures indicate a GDP decline of 3.8% for the eight new EU Member States. The only exception is Poland, which was the only larger economy in Europe to achieve positive economic growth. Practically all other countries in the region suffered sometimes painful GDP declines in 2009; many of them were only able to finance their high budget deficits with support from the IMF and the EU. Alongside Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the crisis was particularly hard on the Ukraine, where the economy may have shrunk by more than 10% in 2009 after years of high growth.
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