Poland provides a reminder that central and eastern Europe’s economic outlook is not entirely dismal. That is worth keeping in mind after reports on Friday that at least 10 east European governments were discussing aid programmes with the International Monetary Fund, which sparked a fall in the euro. Poland successfully sold $2bn of 10-year dollar-denominated bonds at 290 basis points over US Treasuries last week. It both increased the issue size and trimmed the coupon by 10bp after investors placed orders worth more than $8bn.

Poland is also one of the few European Union economies to report first-quarter growth. It might even scrape positive full-year growth (though a small contraction is more likely). Such robustness results from prudence and a dash of good luck.