Page 62 - bne_Magazine_July_2017

62 I New Europe in Numbers bne July 2017
Passenger traffic at Croatian airports
Passenger traffic at Croatia’s airports soars 33% y/y in April
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Fall in population (%)
The number of passengers serviced by Croatia's airports rose 33% y/y to 570,000 in April, according to data from the statistics office, signalling a great start to this year's tourism season. Passenger traffic had contracted 3% y/y in March.
Traffic at Croatian airports rose 13% y/y to a record high of 8.11mn in 2016 thanks to political uncertainty and security issues in rival destinations. To cope with a continuation of this trend, the government has started to upgrade works at the country’s main airports.
Moldova, Bulgaria, Poland, Albania and Latvia to lose more than 40% of their populations by 2100
Fifteen countries in Central and Eastern Europe are expected to see their populations contract by more than 30% by the end of the century, new UN data shows. Moldova, which has already seen an exodus of its citizens to find work abroad, will lead the decline, with its population forecast to drop by 51.8%
by 2100. Over the next 13 years, the sharpest population declines in CEE are expected in Latvia (-10.4%), Bulgaria (-9.2%) and Croatia (-7.0%), with Ukraine and Romania also expected to see declines of more than 6%.
Turkish state’s annual debt stock grows 15% y/y in May
The gross debt stock of Turkey's central government increased 15% y/y to stand at TRY806bn (€204bn) as of the end of May, the Turkish treasury said on June 20. On a monthly basis, central government debt rose 1.48% from TRY795bn at end-April.
Central government debt growth fell to as low as 3% in September last year but then began to accelerate in October, mainly due to the Turkish lira’s depreciation. Annual debt growth reached the peak point of 17% in January and has stayed high since then despite slight declines. The main concern, however, is still the fast expansion of the private sector's external debt.
Russia has not touched its reserves funds this year, but it will
Thanks to higher than expected oil prices Russia has not had to touch its rainy day reserves funds so far this year to prop up budget spending. But the `Ministry of Finance says it will have to dip into them in the second half of this year and expects to at least exhaust the $16.5bn National Reserve Fund.
Under the recently revised budget estimate, the plan this year still calls for withdrawing a total of about RUB1.7 trillion to cover the federal budget deficit. The current plan sees draining the Reserve Fund entirely this year and funding most of the remaining deficit out of the National Welfare Fund. Siluanov expects the government to start dipping into fund assets sometime in the autumn.
The RUB1.7 trillion on call for budget spending is about twice what was in the National Reserve Fund (NRF) as of the end-May, but there is still plenty in the National Welfare Fund (NWF) if needed: the value of the NRF stood at RUB930bn ($16.5bn), while the NWF stood at RUB4.2 trillion ($74bn).
Turkey's Central Government Debt Stock
Russia GIR vs Reserve, National Welfare funds $bn
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thousand persons