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The Regions This Week
December 1, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Central Europe
China and Hungary signed ten agreements
covering the areas of agriculture, e-commerce, finance, telecommunication, tourism, and education during the China-CEE summit in Budapest. The deals include a $500mn credit line for state-owned export bank Eximbank.
The Polish parliament passed a bill that bans retailing on the first and last Sunday of each month. The passing of the law – which still has to be reviewed by the Senate and signed off by the president – fulfils one of the leading promises of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Latvia has written spending of 2% of its GDP for defence in the 2018 budget, the Baltic state’s parliament announced. The country will join only six other members of Nato to meet the level
of defence expenditure recommended by the alliance.
Central Europe’s richest man Petr Kellner agreed to buy Skoda Transportation, the Czech manufacturer of electric trains, trams and buses. The price was not disclosed, though business news website ihned said it was more than CZK10bn (€400mn).
The Latvian economy grew 6.2% in the third quarter of 2017, the Baltic state’s Central Statistical Bureau confirmed. The reading represents a pick-up in the pace of growth after an already strong rise of 4.8% in the second quarter.
The Budapest Administrative and Labour Court ruled that Hungary illegally blocked and fined websites of foreign online gambling operators. The ruling comes four months after the EU’s top court struck down the regulation.
Polish inflation reached its highest level in five years. The consumer price index (CPI) grew 2.5% y/y in November, 0.4pp faster than the annual expansion in October, statistics office GUS announced in a flash estimate.
A Russian accused of hacking social networks including LinkedIn can be extradited from the Czech Republic, Prague’s High Court ruled. Both the US and Russia have sought Yevgeniy Nikulin’s extradition and the Czech Ministry of Justice will now have to decide where he will be sent to.
Unknown attackers hurled stones and pieces of concrete at the Centre of Muslim Culture in the Polish capital Warsaw. The attack was not the first such incident; the centre, which opened in 2015, had its front door damaged two months ago, while shortly after opening an unknown perpetrator threw pig heads onto the centre’s premises.
Slovak economic growth will accelerate to 4.1% in 2018 and 4.3% in 2019 from 3.3% this year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) announced in its autumn global economic outlook. Growth will be driven by consumer spending, which is boosted by the tight labour market, with rising wages
and unemployment at record lows and record vacancies, as well as and low interest rates.
Estonian business posted amalgamated
net profit of €787mn in the third quarter, representing a fall of 8% y/y. The fall in the third quarter should not thwart overall recovery in 2017, however, as it comes after solid annual expansion of 18% y/y in the first quarter and 22% y/y in April-June.