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The Regions This Week
January 12, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Southeast Europe
Mass protests marked the start of Bulgaria’s
EU Council presidency. Thousands took to the streets in numerous separate protests during the official opening ceremony, hoping that Prime Min- ister Boyko Borissov’s wish for a calm and stable six months would give them greater leverage to get what they wanted.
Romanian Interior Minister Carmen Dan refused to resign even though Prime Minister Mihai Tu- dose said he could no longer work with her. Dan is a close ally of Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party, who is locked in
a power struggle with Tudose.
Ivica Todoric, the owner of heavily indebted food and retail giant Agrokor, filed a case against Croatia with the European Commission for adopting the so-called Lex Agrokor. Agrokor, Croatia’s largest company and one of the largest employers in the SEE region, is undergoing restructuring after a debt crisis pushed it to the brink of collapse in 2017.
Petar Hristov, a prominent Bulgarian business- man, was shot dead in front of his main office in Sofia. The reasons for the shooting of Hristov, who is close to the ruling GERB party, are not known.
Kosovan politicians are mobilising in an at- tempt to have the Special Court for war crimes abolished before it makes its first indictments, as they fear political leaders in the country will face charges. The court will prosecute alleged war crimes committed by members of the former Ko- sovo Liberation Army (KLA) against ethnic Serbs during Kosovo's independence war in 1998-99.
Romania’s Mangalia shipyard will be nationalised, Prime Minister Mihai Tudose said. The announcement came as a surprise as the troubled shipyard’s majority owner Daewoo had previously signed an agreement to sell its stake to Dutch Damen.
Serbia’s exports amounted to €13.86bn in Janu- ary-November 2017, an increase of 13.1% against the same period of 2016. Belgrade is seeking to attract more export-oriented investment.
The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) cancelled a dubious €450,000 loan from Bosnian citizen Dijana Djudjic, and returned the €150,000 it has already received. It’s not clear how 32-year-old Djudjic obtained almost half a million euros to lend to the Slovenian opposition party.
The World Bank lowered its forecast for Bosnia & Herzegovina’s economic growth in 2018 to 3.2% in its latest Global Economic Prospects from the previously expected 3.4%. However, Bosnia’s economy is expected to further accelerate
its growth to 3.4% and 3.5% in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Macedonia issued a seven-year €500mn Eu- robond with an annual interest rate of 2.75%. This is the sixth Eurobond issue placed so far by Macedonia’s finance ministry with the lowest interest rate so far.
Milo Djukanovic has the highest chance of be- coming Montenegro’s next president in the 2018 elections, a CEDEM poll showed. Djukanovic’s rul- ing Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) has not lost an election in more than 25 years.
Data shows Slovenia is on track to beat tourism records again in 2017, mainly thanks to the “Mel- ania Trump effect” — the US first lady was born in the Balkan country. Tourist arrivals were up 10% in November, following a strong summer season.
The gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio
of Albanian commercial banks fell further to 14.32% at the end of November, from 20.44%
a year earlier. The NPL ratio is now 10 percentage points below its 2014 peak.