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The Regions This Week
December 7, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Eastern Europe
Ukraine’s parliament greenlighted the discon- tinuing of the friendship agreement with Russia following a dramatic escalation of the Kyiv-Mos- cow military conflict in the Azov Sea.
Russia’s Yandex presented Yandex.Phone, its first smartphone. It is powered by Yandex’s in- telligent assistant Alice and has Yandex services preinstalled. The distinguishing feature of the Yandex.Phone is that Alice can be used across the majority of apps and services without interrupting the smartphone’s services.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is Russians' favourite president amongst the lead- ers of the CIS, according to a poll from the state owned pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Re- search Centre (VTsIOM).
The World Bank inched up the outlook for Rus- sia's GDP growth in 2018 to 1.6% from the previ- ous 1.5%, according to the Russia Economic Re- port. Overall growth for 2018 is expected a notch above 2017, at 1.6%. Consumption would sup- port growth driven by higher demand for durable goods ahead of VAT rate increase.
Russian statistics agency Rosstat is puzzled by a spike in investments made by companies in the third quarter of this year. The agency updated its data on capital investment that shows a 5.2% y/y investment growth as compared with 2.8% and 3.6% in 2Q18 and 1Q18, respectively, and it is not sure what the reason for the increase is.
The European Commission announced the dis- bursement of a €500mn loan tranche to Ukraine under the fourth programme of Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA IV). With this tranche, total loans under MFA to Ukraine since 2014 will reach €3.3bn.
Andriy Parubiy, speaker of Ukraine's parliament, signed the law on the state budget for 2019. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the national budget for 2019 with the deficit within 2.3% of the nation's
GDP. The motion was backed by 240 lawmakers, exceeding the necessary minimum of 226 votes.
Russia's largest bank state-controlled Sberbank acquired 10% in fertiliser major Uralkali from Belarusian businessman Dmitry Lobyak, a part- ner of the largest shareholder in the company Dmitri Mazepin, Vedomosti daily reported.
The European Union will extend sanctions on Russia in December, Reuters reported citing European Council President Donald Tusk. It is not yet clear whether the ongoing military crisis in the Azov Sea will lead to any toughening of the EU’s sanctions regime on Russia.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) will force the banking sector to scrutinise construction and retail sector clients as of January 1, 2019, as the regulator believes these are the main clients of black money markets, Vedomosti daily reported citing the letter sent by the CBR to the banks.
Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railway) may try to float bonds on the international capital market at the beginning of 2019 to raise funds to finance the repayment of $300mn in amortisations on an existing Eurobond, the company’s top manager Yevhen Kravtsov said.
Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed to extend oil production cuts ahead of the Opec+ meeting on December 5-7 in Vienna, Vedomosti daily and In- terfax reported citing Russian President Vladimir Putin on the side-lines of the G20 forum in Ar- gentina. Russia has been capping its production as part of the Opec+ deal agreed with the Middle Eastern oil cartel to boost prices on the interna- tional market.
One of Russia's largest producers of meat Cherkizovo completed the acquisition of Altay Broiler poultry producer from Prioskolye for RUB4.6bn ($69mn) ahead of China’s opening to Russian poultry exports.