But there was yet another boost to the world’s effective labour supply, arising from the collapse of the USSR, following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This brought the whole of Eastern Europe, from the Baltic States, through Poland down to Bulgaria, also into the world’s trading system. The population of working age in Eastern Europe rose from 209.4 million in 2000 to 209.7 million in 2010 and is now projected to be 193.9 million in 2020.
