Czechs head Central Europe's catch-up quartet in race for Western riches

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

PRAGUE (AFP) — Czechs are in pole position to overturn decades of post-war economic decline and stagnation to become the first citizens of a former Communist bloc country to attain Western levels of prosperity.

Catch-up with the West can be achieved within a decade, according to the latest upbeat report on the Central European country published by the 30-strong OECD this week.

"The gap could close within a decade," the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted.

That step, coming after the Czech Republic overtook Portugal's economic performance in 2004, the same year it entered the European Union, would be a landmark for a country that was an economic powerhouse on the level of Belgium before WWII but slipped into relative decline behind...