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The Regions This Week
June 9, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eastern Europe
Russia and China expect to launch the first high- speed freight train connecting the two countries in 2019. The train will ensure optimal conditions for transportation of cargoes that are sensitive to speed and conditions of delivery, and its speed will be up to 400km per hour.
Ukrainian former prime minister and Batkivschy- na (Fatherland) parliamentary faction leader Yulia Tymoshenko pledged to lead a “people’s upris- ing” against a land reform in Ukraine demanded by the IMF.
The IMF and World Bank approved the Ukrainian government’s draft pension reform, according to letters sent to the Kyiv leadership and published by the country’s social policy ministry on June 3. The lenders’ approval is crucial for the continua- tion of existing funding programmes.
Russia’s central bank is ready to increase forex/ gold reserves to $500bn, given favourable conditions such as stable inflation, the bank’s governor said. As of the end of May 2017, the CBR’s forex/gold reserves stood at $406bn, the highest since December 2014.
The World Bank revised its forecast for the growth of Ukraine’s GDP in 2018 to 3.5% from January’s forecast of 3.0%. The forecast for 2019 has been revised upwards to 4% from 3%. According to official data, Ukraine’s real GDP grew 2.3% in 2016.
The privatization of a 19.5% stake in state- owned oil major Rosneft could have just been a loan, after the Wall Street Journal reported the company has the right to buy the stake back after ten years. The Kremlin denied the story was true.
The Russian federal budget in 2017 could re- ceive RUB205bn less than it was expecting as dividend payments – about half of what was planned – as state-owned enterprises (SOE) failed to meet the government’s demands to pay out 50% of profits as dividends, according to the Ac- counting Chamber.
Polyus announced it will return to the stock market with the sale of 7% of its shares. Polyus expects to raise approximately $400mn. Further proceeds from existing equity could go to the company’s controlling shareholder, the family of Suleiman Kerimov.
The Moscow-based International Investment Bank (IIB) on June 6 closed the order book on its new RUB10bn (€155mn) bond issue under the earli- er registered programme of exchange-traded bonds. The initial coupon interest rate was set between 9.00- 9.25%, which corresponds to a yield of 9.21-9.48%.
Russia put off its plans to borrow in yuan the last minute, as it did not meet a condition laid down by Beijing – to borrow by issuing Panda bonds on China’s domestic market, Russia’s deputy finance minister said. Russia trumpeted its intention and ability to sell a debut treasury bond denominated in the Chinese currency throughout 2016. But
the finance ministry has not tapped the Chinese debt market yet because it has not reached a final agreement with Beijing.
M.video said Russia’s consumer electronics market will return to pre-crisis levels by 2019. The company expects its market share to rise to 35% and group company Technosila will be re- branded as Eldorado, another group company.
Russian oil and gas production in May saw crude production decline 0.4% m/m. Only Tatneft did not see any decrease in oil production m/m among the oil majors. Gas production in Russia was up 18.5% y/y.
The US carmaker Ford plans to expand its Rus- sian business. Russia’s car market has been recovering since the beginning of 2017, ending the four years of decline during which a number of foreign car majors pulled out of the country, among them Ford’s main rival General Motors. “We still have a lot of plans in Russia,” Ford was quoted as saying.