Page 5 - bne_newspaper_March_16_2018

The Regions This Week
March 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Central Europe
An Irish High Court judge asked the Court of Justice of the European Union to issue a ruling on the effect of Poland’s judiciary reform on the rule of law. Citing concerns about the rule of law in Poland being under threat from the government, Judge Aileen Donnelly halted an extradition case of a Polish citizen accused of drug trafficking until the European Court of Justice has ruled.
Czech industrial production grew at constant prices by 5.5% y/y in January. However, when seasonally adjusted, production dropped slightly by 0.6% m/m.
Hungary’s industrial output increased 6.9% y/y in January, rebounding from a 0.5% y/y drop in the previous month . Based on working-day adjusted data, output was up 6.7%.
Czech car group Skoda Auto, part of Germany's Volkswagen, increased its operating profit in 2017 by 34.6% to €1.6bn. Sales went up by 20.8% to €16.6bn. Last year Skoda sold a
record 1.2mn cars.
Slovak industrial production grew by 2.2% in January year-on-year. When seasonally adjusted, industrial output grew by 0.3% m/m in January.
The Latvian current account showed a surplus of €120mn in January, a fast growth in m/m and y/y terms. January was the fourth consecutive month in which the Latvian current account showed a surplus, which also turned out to be the largest since February 2017.
Slovak/Czech financial group Penta Investments increased its share in the Czech sports betting and gambling company Fortuna Entertainment to 95.8%. Penta bought approximately 10.6% of shares from US investment management firm Franklin Templeton Investments. This will enable it to begin a squeeze out of minority shareholders and delist the company.
One of the Czech Republic’s biggest engineering groups, Vitkovice Heavy Machinery (VHM), could be saved by the SPV VTK company, owned by Czech businessmen Jaroslav Strnad, one of the country’s main arms producers. SPV VTK has offered to take a 51% stake and solve Vitkovice’s debt problems if creditors and a judge agrees.
A Syrian refugee, Ahmed Hamed, was sentenced at a retrial to seven years on terrorism charges for being involved in a riot at the Hungarian border. The trial has attracted international outrage for the severity of the sentence and the dubious nature of the evidence, and is seen as
a show trial demonstrating the rightwing Fidesz government's crackdown on immigrants.
Slovak year-on-year inflation in February grew by 2.1%. Core inflation was 2.3% and net inflation 1.7%.
Poland's consumer price index grew just 1.4% y/y in February, slowing down 0.5pp against the annual growth rate seen in the preceding month.
Czech retail sales rose at constant prices by 0.8% m/m, with sales adjusted for calendar effects accelerating by 8.2% y/y.
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