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The Regions This Week
December 21, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Central Europe
Ten former employees of Danske Bank’s Estoni- an branch were detained, the first arrests made in the Baltic country since a massive money- laundering scandal was revealed. Around €200bn worth of payments channeled through the Danish bank’s Estonian branch are being investigated.
Hungary sold RMB2bn (€256mn) in panda bonds
targeted at the domestic Chinese market, which winds up the issue of a RMB3bn panda bond pro- gramme. Hungary was amongst the first foreign issuers to tap the onshore and offshore markets for yuan bonds, launching its first RMB1bn yuan- denominated bond issue in July 2017.
Slovak President Andrej Kiska attempted to block a new law that introduced a 2.5% special levy of net turnover for retail chains in Slovakia by re- fusing to sign the legislation, Hospodarske Noviny reported. However, the law will become law de- spite the president’s effort.
Lithuania will buy a floating liquefied natural gas terminal for an estimated €308mn. Lawmak- ers voted overwhelmingly in favour of buying the terminal that has been providing gas to the coun- try since 2014 from its position off the Lithuanian coast.
The Czech National Bank (CNB) decided to increase a key interest rate to 1.75% with effect from January 1, 2020, taking into account optimis- tic expectations toward future household income and asset prices, including property prices. The CNB has raised the countercyclical capital buffer rate five times since the end of 2015, when it used this rate for the first time.
Modus Group, the owner of Lithuania-based CityBee, is positioning the company as one of the biggest car-sharing services in Europe with a major investment into its fleet planned for
2019. The company has just launched a tender to buy over 5,000 new cars, roughly five times as many as its current fleet, following a reported €110mn investment by Modus.
Airbus Helicopters will set up a production plant for helicopter components in Hungary by 2021. The deal also covers Hungary's purchase of 36 new military helicopters which will contribute to meeting the country's Nato commitments.
Gross wages in the Polish corporate sector grew 7.6% y/y in November, 0.1pp faster than the an- nual reading in the preceding month, the statistics office GUS said. The reading extends the long trend of robust wage growth in Poland that owes to the tightening of the country’s labour market.
The percentage of Estonians living in relative poverty expanded to 22.6% in 2017, while 3.4% lived below the absolute poverty threshold, data from Statistics Estonia showed. The number of people living in relative poverty increased as much as 1.6pp and the number of those living in abso- lute poverty by 0.2pp, compared to 2016 data.
The total debt of Czech coach operator RegioJet exceeded CZK1bn (€38.8mn) in 2017 due to the purchase of four new trains and expansion to new lines, its annual report showed. RegioJet publish- es its annual reports at the latest point allowed by the law, citing the advantage enjoyed by German competitor FlixBus, which does not have to pub- lish any annual reports.
Polish core inflation accelerated to 0.9% y/y in November, the National Bank of Poland (NBP) said. Subdued core inflation – which is price growth without influence of prices of food and energy – will all but push Poland’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) closer to hiking interest rates, which have lingered at a record low of 1.5% for over three years now.