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The Regions This Week
December 21, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eastern Europe
Russian aluminium major Rusal could see sanc- tions lifted within 30 days after a deal was made with billionaire and Kremlin insider Oleg Deripas- ka to significantly reduce his stake in the compa- ny, the US Treasury Department (USTD) said.
Russia's blockchain platform Vostok raised $120mn from a group of foreign investors, RBC daily reported citing a representative of the platform. Reportedly the platform got backing from over 15 investors in Europe, China, Singa- pore, and Russia.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested Rus- sia is backing separatist rebels in the eastern providence of Ukraine. When asked at a Moscow press conference why Russia doesn’t recognise the independence of the self-declared Donetsk and Lu- hansk People’s Republics, Lavrov replied, “You want to recognize DNR and LNR? And what further? Lose the rest of Ukraine and leave it to the Nazis?”
Billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev plans to open the first permanent Cirque du Soleil stage in the Russian capital’s Skolkovo industrial park, with the first shows scheduled for 2019, but the extrav- agant Canadian circus has already drawn com- plaints from the cultural establishment. The head of the Moscow State Circus Edgard Zapashny says such foreign projects would compete for local talents and artists, Vedomosti daily reported.
In January-November 2018 Belarus' GDP was up by 3.2% from the same period a year ago,
the National Statistics Committee of Belarus reported, as cited by BelTA. According to the first assessment, the country's GDP in money terms totalled BNY111bn ($52.2bn), or 103.2% in compa- rable prices against January-November 2017.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) filed a claim with the Tribunal de Premiere Instance in Geneva against Ihor Kolomoisky, ex-shareholder of the country's largest lender PrivatBank, nation- alised in late 2016.
Russians spend a third of their income (31.2%) on food, according to RIA Rating. Luxembourgers spend the least of all on food (8.7%), followed by the UK (10%), and the Netherlands (10.6%). Ukrain- ians spend the most, where food takes up 50.9% of the domestic budget, and Kazakhstan with 46%.
Russia's industrial output moderated in Novem- ber to 2.4% year-on-year growth from 3.7% y/y seen in October, Rosstat reported. Previously in October and September Russian industry was demonstrating solid numbers, but the October's boost was also supported by low base effect.
Danish furniture and household merchandise company JYSK will expand its chain of stores in Ukraine to 48 outlets, the local unit of JYSK said in a statement. Several international retailer have plans to expand into Ukraine in 2019 including Auchan, IKEA and Decathlon.
The EBRD will buy a share in the Belarusian ag- ribusiness company Servolux, EBRD representa- tives told BelTA. The money will be channeled into building a new meat processing shop with the output capacity of 70 tonnes of meat per day in Smolevichi, Minsk Oblast.
Wildberries will become the largest online retailer in Russia with the RUB120bn ($1.8bn) it expects to earn in 2018, a surge of 74% year-on- year, Kommersant daily said citing representatives of the company. "This figure would make Wildber- ries the leading e-commerce operator in Rus-
sia for the third consecutive year and the largest online retailer overall," VTB Capital commented.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will extend the mandatory requirement to exchange foreign currency proceeds received from abroad by legal entities until February 6. The requirement has been extended until the law on currency and forex operations, as well as a number of regulatory acts of the central bank, which will form a new system of currency regulation, comes into force.