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The Regions This Week
March 8, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 4
Central Europe
The liberal Eesti Reformierakond (Reform Party) won the Estonian general election, moving ahead of the incumbent centre-left Keskerakond (Centre Party) and the rising nationalists from EKRE, results showed. Reform’s leader, Kaja Kallas,
a lawyer and former member of the European Parliament, could now become Estonia’s first female prime minister.
A subsidiary of Hungary’s state-owned electricity company MVM opened Hungary’s largest solar park in Paks, near the country’s sole nuclear power plant. Solar energy accounts for 0.5%
of the country's annual electricity production, but that could grow substantially with the construction of new facilities. There are some 3,000MW capacity solar projects in the pipeline.
Cyber attacks are becoming more serious in Lithuania. The number of cyber incidents of high and medium importance rose by 40% in 2018, according to a defence ministry report, although the total number of incidents was flat compared to 2017.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis met with
US President Donald Trump to discuss cyber security, the international situation and trade with no barriers between the US and EU. Babis is the first Czech PM in the past eight years to receive an invitation to a bilateral meeting with the US president.
Poland’s PMI rose 0.6 points to 47.6 in February,
remaining below the 50-point line separating contraction from growth in what was the joint- worst reading of the indicator in over five years, IHS Markit reported.
Lithuania’s Ukio Bankas was part of the Russian Laundromat scheme, claimed a report from
the OCCRP. The now defunct Lithuanian bank is suspected of being used to help move billions
of euros out of Russia as part of a global money laundering scheme.
The Slovak economy ministry will support innovative ideas concerning smart cities and businesses, Economy Minister Peter Ziga said at a conference. More than two-thirds of EU citizens live in cities and they consume about 80% of energy and produce up to 85% of European GDP.
Capital Economics expects the Czech koruna to weaken in 2019. Analysts forecast the Czech currency would defy the predicted path seen by the Czech National Bank (CNB), influencing decision-makers of the bank to raise interest rates further to keep the currency above the inflation target. The koruna is seen reaching CZK25.8 to the euro.
Two Hungarians are on Forbes' list of the world's billionaires in 2019. The CEO of Hungary's largest lender OTP, Sandor Csanyi, and oligarch Lorinc Meszaros both made it onto the list.
Lithuania is ready to take the lead on the Rail Baltica project, Transport and Communications Minister Rokas Masiulis said in a letter to the European Commission. Rail Baltica, the largest rail project in the Baltic region, will integrate the Baltic states with the European rail network.
Latvian prosecutors temporarily lifted a travel bank on central bank governor Ilmars Rimsevics. The central banker, who faces bribery charges, was given permission to travel to a European Central Bank meeting in Frankfurt.
The number of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) registered in Poland grew 4.4% y/y in February, market monitoring firm Samar said. Sales accelerated growth after moving up just 0.6% y/y in January.