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The Regions This Week
March 15, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eastern Europe
Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom will start filling the Power of Siberia (Sila Sibiri) natural gas pipeline that connects Russia to China from September 1, Gazprom Transgaz Tomsk said in its corporate magazine, as cited by Prime.
The attitude of Russians and Ukrainians to each other has warmed a little: according to independent pollster the Levada Center and the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) the proportion of Ukrainians who relate well to Russia has increased from 48% to 57% between November 2018 and the present and Russians with a positive perception of Ukraine has risen to 34% vs. 28% over the same period.
Russia’s federal budget surplus amounted to RUB309.6bn ($4.7bn), or 2% of GDP, in January– February, the finance ministry said, providing preliminary estimates. Budget revenue amounted to RUB2.843 trillion and spending stood at RUB2.533 trillion.
Consumer prices in Ukraine rose 0.5% m/m in February following a 1% m/m growth in January, according to the nation's state statistics service Ukrstat. The price growth was mostly driven by food, housing and utility prices. Annual inflation stood at 8.8% year-on-year in February vs 9.2% y/y in January.
Russia's second-largest oil producer and largest independent oil company Lukoil has spent $1.639bn on its share buyback programme so far, acquiring 2.87% of its shares, the company said. Lukoil posted strong profit and cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) inked an agreement with the international central securi- ties depository Clearstream on the correspondent relations agreement for further opening a securi- ties account at the central bank's depository.
Russia intends to auction off 50% of crab fishing quotas instead of assigning the quotas to market players in proportion to the catch as in previous years, which will earn the state an extra RUB82bn ($1.3bn) in revenues.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution assessing the current state of EU-Russia political relations, which stepped up the harsh rhetoric against Russia and underlined the need for energy independence that could pose risks to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Ukraine's battered Odesa Port Plant (OPP) almost halved its net loss y/y to UAH750.457mn in 2018. Ukrainian and foreign investors have had no interest in privatisation of OPP over the past years due to its disastrous financial conditions.