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Weekly Lists
May 18, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
bne:Credit
EIB “ready to provide” Uzbekistan up to $500mn in loans for energy efficiency and agriculture projects
Hungarian bond yields continue to trek higher
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is “ready to provide” loans totalling $500mn to Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan 24 television channel reported on May 16, citing EIB Vice President Vazil Hudák. The loans are to finance projects focused on water resources management, energy efficiency, heating and the Uzbek agricultural sector, Hudák noted.
A framework agreement between Uzbekistan and the EIB regarding the development bank's plans to enter the Uzbek market came into force in March. The Uzbek central bank said earlier that Uzbekistan is interested in EIB funding for the purposes of financing fuel and energy projects, including alternative and renewable energy development and general energy efficiency.
Yields of the 10-year bond moved up 12bps in the past two days to break through the resistance of 3% for the first time since August, local media reported on May 16. Yields surged 50bps in the past two weeks.
The sell-off in Hungarian bonds came in tandem with the weaken- ing of the forint, which on Tuesday slid to its weakest level against the euro in two years, trading above the 317 level.
There is a broad-based selloff in emerging market assets, analysts said, adding that some factors, such as the dovish policies of the central bank are also playing a part in the weakness of Hungarian assets.
The Magyar Nemzeti Bank's new tools introduced late last year, such as the interest rate swap programme, achieved their goal of reducing yields of the five and 10-year bonds.
The share of non-performing loans (NPLs) in Ukraine's banking system grew by 1.8 percentage point (pp) to 56.4% in January-March, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) wrote in its latest review on the nation's banking sector published on May 8.
"The high NPL rate remains a major challenge to the banking sector, and this particularly concerns state-owned banks," the document reads. "The banks need to step up their efforts to workout NPLs, and finalise their NPL resolution plans for 2018."
The level of NPLs at the major state-owned PrivatBank, nationalised in late 2016, stood at 87.6% as of early April.
Level of NPLs in Ukraine banking system rose by 1.8pp to 56.4% in January- March