Page 6 - bne_newspaper_April_19_2019

The Regions This Week
April 19, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Central Europe
The Czech Republic’s ageing population is the main risk to long-term fiscal sustainability, said rating agency Moody’s. The Czech Republic has
a A1 positive credit rating that is supported by a low and declining debt burden as well as prudent fiscal policies, according to Moody's annual analysis.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's son-in-law will build a luxury hotel in central Budapest. Istvan Tiborcz’s BDPST Group obtained a permit to renovate a city block in the centre
of Budapest and to construct a luxury hotel and premium apartments, in a project that has been declared an investment of key importance to the national economy.
Estonia’s Reform party, which won the election
in early March, failed to secure a parliamentary majority, the vote’s result now opening a possibility for the runner-up Centre party to bid for power. Centre looks certain to secure a majority in the Riigikogu, having already agreed coalition terms with far right EKRE and Fatherland.
Slovakian energy company Slovenske Elektrarne expects further delays in launching the third and fourth blocks of the Mochovice nuclear power plant in Nitra region, online Novinky.cz reported. The blocks were planned to be launched by 2013 at a cost of €2.8bn. Now the cost will be €270mn higher than expected.
Rating agency Standard & Poor’s affirmed Poland’s foreign currency long- and short-term sovereign credit rating at A-/A-2 with stable outlook. Poland’s rating is underpinned by “the diversified economy, educated workforce, EU membership, manageable levels of public and private debt, solid external metrics, and relatively deep domestic capital markets,” S&P said.
The economies of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will see lower growth rates in 2019 and 2020 but still outpace the Eurozone average, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts in its latest World Economic Outlook. Latvia will grow the fastest this year at 3.2%, a slowdown of as much as 1.6pp against 2018. Estonia's economy is expected to grow 3% in 2019, a slowdown of 0.9pp. Lithuania is ex- pected to post growth of 2.9%, a reduction of 0.5pp.
Poland will transfer PLN162.3bn (€38bn) worth of assets amassed in the country’s private pensions funds, known as OFEs, to individual pension accounts in 2020, the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. The transfer will effectively end the OFEs' role as one of the pillars of the Polish pension system.
Media owner and television presenter Jaromir Soukup announced he will run in the next presidential elections in the Czech Republic to be held in 2023, Hospodarske Noviny reported. “I am really serious about it,” said Soukup, though many observers dismissed the announcement as a PR stunt.
Hungary's construction sector output grew
48% y/y in February, its fastest pace on record, up from 29% growth in January, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said. Output increased by 6.7% compared to the previous month. In the first two months of 2019, construction sector output climbed 39.0% to HUF444bn (€1.38bn).
Slovakia’s Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry launched a Green Diesel project aimed at making crop and animal production more efficient and Slovak farmers more competitive, according to the Agriculture Minister Gabriela Matecna, daily Sme.sk reported.
Fitch Ratings affirmed Latvia’s long-term issuer rating at A- with stable outlook. The rating is sup- ported by the Baltic state's solid public finances, institutional strength, and credible policy frame- work that come with EU and Eurozone member- ship, Fitch wrote, repeating its assessment from the previous rating, released in October.