Page 7 - bne_newspaper_April_13_2018

The Regions This Week
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Central Europe
Poland intends to spend PLN25bn-PLN30bn (€6bn-€7.2bn) in an attempt to reduce the smog that cripples the country in winter months. The money will be spent over the next ten years to improve thermal insulation of houses, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
The former owner of two failed Baltic banks was reportedly arrested in Russia. Vladimir Antonov is the former co-owner of now-defunct lenders Snoras and Latvijas Krajbanka, which collapsed in 2011.
Czech-founded anti-virus firm Avast will list its shares on the London Stock Exchange. The com- pany, which owns the popular consumer antivirus company AVG, hopes to raise $200mn in primary proceeds from an IPO.
Skoda Auto agreed to a 12% wage increase for its workers, offered generous annual bonuses of CZK110,000 (approx. €4,300) on average, and backed off from introducing Saturdays as full working days, averting the threat of a strike and bringing an end to lengthy negotiations. The deal shows the muscle of Czech unions amid a booming economy and underscores the dire lack of available skilled workers in the country.
Latvian’s national airline airBaltic reported a 301% hike in net profit to €4.6mn in 2017. Making airBaltic a top airline in the Baltic state has long been Riga’s priority, and the task was made easier by the problems of state airlines in neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania.
Hungary’s agricultural producer prices rose by 4.9% y/y in February, up from 2.1% growth in January, the statistics office KSH said. Hungary’s
agriculture continues to be heavily dependent on EU farm subsidies.
The Czech government chose a CzechToll and SkyToll tie-up to run the country’s highway
toll system for 10 years starting in 2020. The consortium beat the current toll operator Kapsch with a CZK10.75bn (€424mn) bid.
The Lithuanian consumer price index (CPI) gained 2.7% y/y in March, shedding 0.8pp against the annual reading from the previous month, Statistics Lithuania said. The annual price growth in March extends the inflationary trend in the Lithuanian CPI to 27 months.
Three large German companies have chosen
to invest in Hungary's second-largest city Debrecen since Lufthansa launched its first direct flight two years ago. Lufthansa has seen strong growth in Hungary, with an 8% rise in passenger traffic to 1.75mn on its Hungarian routes last year.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) ended the monthly vigils to commemorate the 2010 plane crash in Smolensk, Russia. The crash killed then president Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 other people, including top military brass and other officials.
Slovakia's long-dominant political party Smer- SD party is dropping in opinion polls in the aftermath of the murder of Slovak journalist
Jan Kuciak and his fiancée and the ensuing political crisis focused on perceived corruption in government. A recent poll by the AKO agency showed support had dropped from 24.7% in February to 20.7% in April.
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