Page 10 - bne_newspaper_December_07_2018

The Regions This Week
December 7, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
Central Europe
Aldis Gobzems, the candidate for Latvia’s new prime minister, proposed a five party govern- ment coalition to be voted in the parliament. Gobzems, the leader of Latvia’s populist KPV party, wants the New Conservative Party (JKP), the right-wing National Alliance, and centrists from Greens and Farmers Union and New Unity to be in his government.
Polish GDP growth pushed to a seasonally ad- justed 5.7% y/y in the third quarter, a prelimi- nary estimate released by the Central Statistical Office GUS showed. Unadjusted expansion was also strong at 5.1% y/y.
Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak submitted his resignation to President Andrej Kiska. The minister resigned in protest against a parliamentary decision to reject the UN global pact on migration.
The Prague Municipal Court banned Estonian ride sharing app Taxify from operating in the Czech capital until it meets the legal obligations for operating as a regular taxi service. The court ruled that all Taxify drivers must respect condi- tions and obtain taxi licenses, have their drivers registered, have taximeters installed in their cars, and tax their earnings in the country.
Lithuanian GDP grew an adjusted 2.9% y/y in the third quarter, according to a second estimate released by Statistics Lithuania. The reading con- firms that the Lithuanian economic growth disap- pointed in the third quarter although the revised figures show the slowdown was less pronounced than in the estimate published a month earlier.
Hungary has "no alternative" to building two new blocks at the Paks nuclear power plant, the minister without portfolio in charge of the upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant told an
international energy conference in Budapest. The investment is needed to secure Hungary's energy needs safely and meet clean energy targets.
Estonian industrial production grew 1.7% y/y
in October, working-day adjusted data from Sta- tistics Estonia showed. The expansion rate marks a slowdown of 0.6pp compared to the sector’s performance in September.
Brexit could reduce Czech GDP by up to CZK55bn
(€2.1bn), or by 1.1%, according to analysis by the bank Ceska Sportelna. Brexit could also lead to layoffs of up to 40,000 employees in Czechia and have a significant impact on the automotive, elec- tronics and machinery industries.
The Budapest declared the establishment of
a media holding controlled by Hungarian gov- ernment loyalists as an issue of national strate- gic importance, citing the "public interest of sav- ing print media". The government decree hence blocks any potential antitrust investigation into the single largest media transaction in the coun- try's history.
The number of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) registered in Poland grew 4.4% y/y in November, market monitoring firm Samar said. The growth rate of car sales picked up speed from an expansion of 1.2% y/y
in October, which followed a drop in sales in September that ended a series of 41 months of uninterrupted expansion.
Latvia's calendar-adjusted industrial produc- tion fell 1.9% y/y in October, the Central Statisti- cal Bureau reported. Output fell for the second time in a row and the third time overall this year, slightly increasing worries of a slowdown in
the industrial sector that could impede economic growth in the fourth quarter.