Page 6 - bne_newspaper_December_15_2017

The Regions This Week
December 15, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Eastern Europe
President Vladimir Putin declared victory against IS during a triumphant appearance in Syria on December 11. He also said he would pull out Russian military forces.
The US administration of President Donald Trump has prepared new sanctions against Russia in response to an alleged violation of a Cold War-era nuclear arms treaty. The US signed off on a new round of sanctions in August 2017, and the threat of more remains a major source of uncertainty for Russia's recovering outlook.
The European Union has prolonged Russian sanctions, which are set to expire in January 2018, until mid-2018.
Russia will resume regular flights to Egypt
President Vladimir Putin said during a visit to Cairo this week, but the top Red Sea holiday resorts Hurghada and Sharm-el-Sheikh are still banned. Russia imposed the ban after a terror attack brought down a Russian liner over the Sinai peninsula and killed 224 people in October 2015.
Thousands marched in central Kyiv last week- end calling for the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko and the release of former Odessa governor and ex-Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was finally arrested on the third attempt as political tensions re- mained high.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Russia rose in in the first half of 2017 to $17bn. The bulk of this money is actually Russian capital flight returning home via offshore havens.
Russia’s fixed investment was up 3% y/y in the third quarter, largely driven by a few state sponsored mega-projects. The result was a disappointment following growth of more than 6% in the second quarter.
Ukraine's balance of trade will lose $1.8bn in 2017 and $500mn in 2018 from the economic Donbas blockade, deputy governor of the Na- tional Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleh Churiy said. The official believes that the trade deficit will remain at 4% in 2018-2019, gradually falling to 3% of GDP in 2019.
Ukraine's parliament greenlighted on De- cember 7 the nation's state budget for 2018 in second reading with a deficit target increased to UAH81.8bn ($3.02bn) or 2.5% of GDP from UAH77.9bn or 2.4% of GDP.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expects its end of year forecast for inflation to grow more than the earlier forecasted 12.2%. November’s CPI was 13.6% y/y in November from 14.6% in October. Year to date inflation is 14.5%, the ser- vice said.
Some 5mn new credit cards have been issued in Russia so far in 2017, which is 45.6% more
in the same period a year earlier, according to National Bureau of Credit History. Newly is- sued loans reached 21% of total final household spending in the first half of 2017, which is above the 15-18% during 2015-2016 crisis, but still be- low the 25-27% seen in pre-crisis 2013-2014.
Half of all Sberbank’s earnings will be paid out as dividends by 2020, the bank's CEO German Gref told at the investors' day in London on De- cember 14. However, the new dividend policy was not included in a board meeting on the bank’s strategy later the same week.
Ukraine’s leading steel holding Metinvest says it will pay $6.5mn in Eurobond interest ahead of schedule, the company said. Metinvest allo- cated a total of $9.7mn for the early repayment of bonds, of which the disbursement to noteholders will be $6.5mn of pay-if-you-can (PIYC) interest for the period of November 18 - December 17.