Gallup has contacted the 200 largest multinational companies operating in Central and Eastern Europe, with operations in Hungary, between the 15^th and the 21^st of September, asking the opinion of local leaders about the influence of the Russian financial crisis.

The present results reflect the opinions of 109 CEOs, working in Budapest, who were willing to take part in the survey. The multinational companies they represent include the American Express, BAT, CIB Bank, Colgate-Palmolive, Creditanstalt, Glaxo Wellcome, Grundig, Henkel, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Mazda, McDonalds, Levi-Strauss, Lucent Technologies, Nestlé, Opel, Philips, Raiffeisen Unicbank, Shell, Siemens, Sony, Spar and Unilever among a range of others.

One third of the multinationals reported that their company is directly affected by the Russian financial collapse. The majority of the company leaders working in Hungary however remains optimistic about the prospects of Central Europe. Only 37% of the respondents share the opinion that these events have substantially damaged Central Europe’s prospects. The majority of respondents (60 percent) believes that the Russian shock would not impair the overall situation in Central European Countries.

Multinationals are overwhelmingly confident that investors will be able to differentiate between emerging markets (84%), limiting the effects of the Russian crisis only to some of them.

Only 29% believe that in Russia the collapse will remain an isolated financial problem. There is an underlying insecurity and caution as 65% of the respondents are sure that the fiscal/ economic crisis will lead to bigger social and political transformations. (Interesting to note that companies directly affected are less pessimistic than those who are not reporting direct effects; it is less then 60% among the former group and over 70% among the latter who foresee larger social and political transformation in Russia).

There is no consensus regarding the question whether the Russian crisis will help or harm CEE countries in the process of integration into NATO and/or the European Union. A relative majority believes that the events might even speed up the process of inclusion into the larger political integrative security structures. 42 percent of respondents think that a speed-up of these processes will occur, while a slightly smaller percentage (34%), anticipate delay in the integration process. One of every four CEOs (24%) does not agree with any of the two scenarios and see no possible effect of this sort.