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The Regions This Week
December 8, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eastern Europe
Supporters of former Georgian president and governor of the Odesa region Mikheil Saakash- vili ripped the politician out of a police van after he was arrested by Ukrainian security forces in Kyiv. Saakkashvili had been detained in the morning by the SBU security service and the Prosecutor General's Office at his apartment in downtown Kyiv.
Russia's largest oil company Rosneft and its subsidiary Bashneft filed another lawsuit against conglomerate AFK Sistema, seeking
an additional RUB131.6bn in damages. Rosneft now contests RUB131.6bn in dividends Sistema received from Bashneft from 2009 to 2014, putting the total claims of Rosneft to RUB260bn. Siste- ma’s shares tanked on the news.
Russia's GDP growth slowed to 1% in October in annual terms from 2.4% growth seen in Sep- tember, according to the preliminary estimate of the Ministry of Economic Development. October marked a weak opening for the fourth quarter
of 2017 and follows disappointing GDP numbers posted in the third quarter.
Russia's mobile phone operators are preparing for a new series of price wars, Vedomosti re- ported. In November, MTS significantly lowered rates for its Smart offerings in several regions. In response, one of the operator's main competitors Megafon is about to lower its rates for voice and data bundles. Another major operator, Vimpel- com, is apparently monitoring the situation.
Business activity in the Russian service sector showed a steep rise in November, with an in- crease in new orders and business activity growth accelerating to their strongest levels since Janu- ary, according to the IHS Markit report.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is considering tightening prudential rules covering retail lend-
ing to slow the breakneck speed in the growth
in retail loans. Retail lending rose 10% y/y in October, faster than corporate lending. Whereas in 2016 retail lending accounted for only 15% of nominal growth in retail trade, by September 2017 the contribution of retail lending to annual growth of retail trade had risen to 80%,
The European Commission refused to allocate a new €600mn tranche to Ukraine out of its Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) programme, the Commission said in a statement.
A Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for Vlad Plahotniuc, the president of the Demo- cratic Party of Moldova. The Moldovan oligarch has been charged with attempted murder, but the case has political undertones.
The GDP of Belarus will grow by 2% year-on- year in 2017 and by 3.5% y/y in 2018, Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov told a government meeting on December 5. Belarus' economy is performing better than expected and GDP grew by 2% y/y in January-October.
Ukraine’s Finance Ministry placed euro- denominated 1.5-year local bonds for the first time in the last three years, raising €90mn.
The notes were placed at the rate of 3.95%.
Kyiv also raised $26mn from a US dollar-bond placement maturing in May 2019 at the rate of 3.85% the same day. The issue followed a surprise local $575mn dollar-denominated placement in late November.
Due to a shortage of large offices in the Moscow Central Business District (CBD) office market, rental rates are likely to rise by 25% by the end of 2019, according to a study by JLL.