Average standards of living registered a catastrophic fall in the early 1990s in many parts of the former Comecon—most notably in the former Soviet Union—and began to rise again only toward the end of the decade. Some populations are still considerably worse off today than they were in 1989 (e.g. Moldova, Serbia). However, others have bounced back considerably beyond that threshold (e.g. the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) and some such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (see Baltic Tiger) and Slovakia underwent an economic boom, although all have suffered from the 2009 recession, except for Poland, which as the only country in Europe maintained growth despite the worldwide recession.