Czech Fund analyst Lukáš Kovanda told news server Aktualne.cz that the Czech Republic has been catching up with economically more advanced European countries. “Countries of the southern wing of the euro area, including Spain, were particularly hard hit by the debt crisis of the first half of the decade. Central and Eastern European countries have not been hit so hard. This allows them now to compare with the southern part of the euro area more quickly than with other parts of the euro area,” he said.