Page 8 - bne_newspaper_April_12_2019

The Regions This Week
April 12, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Southeast Europe
Turkey will prioritise exports and output in seven strategic sectors in a push to escape recession. Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said that exports and production will be boosted in the strategic sectors of energy, mining, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, tourism, automotives and information technology.
Private equity firm Mid Europa Partners
agreed to acquire a majority stake in Croatian bakery chain Mlinar, which it plans to expand internationally. Mlinar is already the leading bakery retail and wholesale business in Croatia and operates the largest bakery retail network in Southeast Europe.
Romanian police found hundreds of kilograms of cocaine washed up on the Black Sea coast. The cocaine, packaged in plastic bags, reportedly came from a journey across the Black Sea that ended badly for the traffickers, for reasons that have not yet been established by Romanian investigators. Police are still searching the seashore for more drug caches.
North Macedonia’s government will rename the Philip II football stadium in line with the name deal with Greece. This was the latest renaming after the government in Skopje signed a deal with Greece in June 2018. The Philip II arena will be renamed National Arena Tose Proeski after the late Macedonia singer who died in a car crash in 2007 at the age of 26.
Serbia’s defence exports rose 13.9% in 2018,
Acting Deputy Defence Minister Nenad Milora- dovic said. Serbia exports guns, ammunition, artillery ammunition, mortar shells, artillery missile ammunition and mortars, as well as more sophisticated systems.
The Slovenian foreign affairs ministry recalled the country’s ambassador to Croatia for consultations following reports that Croatian representatives tried to influence the reporting
of a Slovenian media outlet on the activities of the Croatian intelligence in Slovenia.
Police killed one of three gunmen in a shootout after the audacious theft of €10mn from a plane at Albania’s Tirana international airport. Armed robberies are not uncommon at Tirana airport. Several incidents on a smaller scale happened in the last three years.
While not the baseline scenario, the chances
of a rate hike in Romania this year have increased, ING Romania said in a comment on the minutes of the latest central bank monetary board meeting, when the policy interest rate was maintained at 2.5%. The bank’s analysts see Romania’s central bank “turning outright hawkish” amid concerns over higher inflation.
Bosnia will be suspended from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly for the rest
of 2019 as it has failed to form a government or appoint delegates six months after the October 2018 general election. European officials warned Bosnia’s new state-level parliament that it should nominate representatives to the CoE’s assembly by April 7, but parliament failed to convene.
Turkey’s interior minister backed a demand for a rerun of the Istanbul election. The election result saw the opposition Republican People’s Party candidate narrowly win at the ballot box, dealing a shock to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Bulgaria's industrial production increased 6.6% y/y in February, accelerating from a revised 2.6% y/y rise in January, boosted mainly by the mining and manufacturing sectors, according to working-day adjusted statistics office data. On a seasonally-adjusted monthly comparison basis, output moved up 1.5% in February after rising by revised 3.6% in January.