(ANSA) - BELGRADE, 10 GIU - Economies in the Balkans and Central- and Eastern Europe will register a significant drop due to the coronavirus pandemics in 2020, but they will rebound in 2021, according to the latests forecasts of the World Bank. However, the Bank warned, "the risks to this outlook are strongly to the downside, including a resurgence of COVID-19 infections, a more prolonged than expected period of adverse financing conditions and investment sentiment, and an unexpectedly strong amplification of the economic downturn through a sharper drop in remittances." Moreover, a "severe drought that is affecting large swaths of the region could also worsen" the scenario. In its new Global Economic Prospects report, released this week, the World Bank said it expects Central Europe to contract in average by 5% in in 2020, while Eastern Europe countries may contract by 3.6%. In the Western Balkans, the economic activity will shrink by 3.2% in 2020 and rebound by 4.6% in 2021, the report reads. In the region, Croatia may experience the strongest GDP drop in 2020 (-9.3%), rebounding to +5.4% in 2021. Croatia is followed by Bulgaria (-6.2% in 2020, +4.3% in 2021), Romania (-5.7% in 2020, +5.4% in 2021), Montenegro (-5.6% in 2020, +4.8% in 2021), Hungary (-5.0% in 2020, +4.5% in 2021), Albania (-5.0% in 2020, +8.8% in 2021), Kosovo (-4.5% in 2020, +5.2% in 2021), Poland (-4.2% in 2020, +2.8% in 2021), Ukraine (-3.5% in 2020, +3.0% in 2021), Bosnia and Herzegovina (-3.2% in 2020, +3.4% in 2021), Serbia (-2.5% in 2020, +4.0% in 2021) and North Macedonia (-2.1% in 2020, +3.9% in 2021). (ANSA).