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The Regions This Week
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Southeast Europe Montenegro successfully placed a €500mn
seven-year Eurobond issue at a favourable interest rate of 3.375%, the finance ministry said. The new Eurobond is aimed at refinancing previous bond issues amounting to €362mn that are due to be paid in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Serbian far-right leader Vojislav Seselj was sentenced to 10 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the civil war caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Seselj said after the verdict he was “proud of all war crimes”.
A harsh winter and a decline in investments slowed growth in the Western Balkans in 2017, even though 190,000 new jobs were created in the first nine months of the year, a World Bank report said. An official from the development bank stressed that growth is highly vulnerable to both domestic and external shocks.
Slovenian aircraft manufacturer Pipistrel started building a new factory in Jurong, China. Pipistrel is investing €350mn alongside its Chinese partner Kang Quai Group in a major $1bn development comprising an airport and an apartment complex as well as the factory.
Real estate transactions in Romania reached a record level last year, exceeding €1bn, at least 10% up compared to the previous year, a report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PwC showed. The rise comes on the back of the favourable macroeconomic environment.
The Albanian parliament descended into chaos
as opposition MPs pelted Prime Minister Edi Rama and other cabinet ministers with eggs and flour during a discussion of the arrests
of protesters against the country’s first toll road. The toll, which local residents backed by the main opposition parties say is too high, has
become one of the country’s most contentious issues.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Bosnia
& Herzegovina increased 19.4% y/y to 37,257
in February, statistics office data showed. The bulk of foreign tourists came from Croatia (8,491), Serbia (7,593) and Slovenia (2,775).
Bulgaria’s population continued its decline last year, numbering 7,050,034 people at the end of December, a decline of 51,825 people or 0.7% compared to a year earlier. A UN study projects a combination of low birth rates and mass emigration will erode Bulgaria’s population by 23.4% by 2050.
The small HRAST party quit Croatia’s ruling coalition over the planned ratification of the Istanbul Convention. The decision leaves Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic with a very fragile parliamentary majority.
Moldova plans to ban sales of farmland or forests to foreign citizens under a new draft law. Currently around 15% of Moldova’s farmland is owned by foreigners despite restrictions on land ownership by foreign firms.
Kosovo’s harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) edged up 0.1% y/y in March, after being flat y/y in the previous month. the biggest annual price increase was registered for alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+1.9%).
Turnover on the Macedonian Stock Exchange (MSE) turned to strong growth in March, reaching a value of MKD3.48mn (€56.6mn) from MKD357.6mn a month earlier, MSE data indicated. The turnover took a positive turn in March as the value of block transactions increased significantly, including transactions in Komercijalna Banka shares.