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The Regions This Week
September 29, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Southeast Europe
Albania and Kosovo are exploring ways to deep-
en economic cooperation. The prime ministers of the two countries agreed to implement free move- ment of citizens and to offer joint customs ser- vices at Albania’s Durres port, as well as working towards the creation of a common market.
Serbia’s richest man, Delta Holding owner Miroslav Miskovic, was acquitted on charges of financial abuse involving road maintenance com- panies, but he faces retrial on charges of tax eva- sion. Miskovic’s son Marko and their partner Milo Djuraskovic will also be tried for tax evasion.
The Moldovan government approved a bill grant- ing Moldovan citizenship to foreign investors. However, the proposed legislation has been criti- cised by Transparency International’s local chap- ter, which warned that the new provisions in the citizenship law “could represent a new attempt at legalising dubious financial means”.
Turkey’s annual GDP growth target has been set at 5.5% per annum for 2017-2020 in the medi- um-term economic programme, PM Binali Yildi- rim said. Turkey’s economy expanded at 5.1% y/y in the second quarter of 2017 after growing 5.2% in Q1, though there has been some disquiet over the accuracy of the official growth figures.
Albania’s first toll road will open in December, with cars charged €5 to use the Milot-Morine section of the Durres-Kukes motorway. This has triggered concerns over increased costs for local residents in one of the poorest areas of Albania, and a fall in visi- tor numbers from Kosovo is also expected.
Romania will acquire its first Patriot missile defence system by the end of the year, Defence Minister Mihai Fifor announced. In addition, Ro- mania, which is stepping up military procurement, started negotiations on the acquisition of 36 F-16 jet fighters from the US.
Bosnia & Herzegovina’s industrial output in-
creased 7.1% y/y in August, improving from a 5.6% y/y growth in July thanks to the better per- formance of the manufacturing sector. In season- ally adjusted m/m terms, industrial production rose 0.8% in August, the same as in July.
Kosovo's foreign trade deficit went up by 6.3% y/y to €236.9mn in August, after going up by 12.6% y/y in the previous month. The reading reflected the higher growth of exports and slower increase of imports in August.
Moscow-based International Investment Bank (IIB) made a successful bond placement on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. IIB placed bonds in the Romanian national currency amounting to RON300mn (€65mn) and in euros totaling €60mn.
Slovenia’s Court of Audit will scrutinise the operations of the Bank of Slovenia under new legislation adopted by the parliament. The move was in response to accusations that the central bank had demanded too much state capital for the 2013 recapitalisation of several major banks.
Turkey’s business confidence sentiment rose for the second month in a row in September. The con- fidence index hit 111.6 in the month, up from 110.7 and 109.5 in July, with seven of the business senti- ment survey’s eight main sub-indices improving in September compared to August’s readings.
Moldova’s central bank maintained the mone- tary policy interest rate at 7.5% at its September monetary board meeting. The required reserve ra- tios were maintained as well at the current levels of 14% for foreign currency liabilities and 40% for local currency liabilities.
Serbia’s general government public debt stood at 64.6% of GDP at end-August, declining for the fifth consecutive month. After Serbia was hit by the global economic crisis, its public debt ballooned from 28% of GDP in 2008 to over 70% at end-2014 but has been on a downward trend since then.