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The Regions This Week
October 12, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Central Europe
The government in Vilnius is in talks with Japa- nese companies as it prepares to decommission the nuclear power plant in Ignalina, eastern Lithuania. Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas discussed possible participation in the decommis- sioning with Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp.
Istvan Tarlos will run for a third consecutive term as mayor of the Hungarian capital Buda- pest in next year's local government elections. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has asked the in- cumbent mayor of Budapest run again, as while he is not a member of the ruling Fidesz party, he has a massive lead in the polls.
Swedish furniture giant Ikea plans to open stores in Estonia and Ukraine, among several other new markets. Ikea is already present in Latvia and Lithuania.
German company Bauer Media Group agreed to sell Bauer Media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to Mafra publishing house, a member of Agrofert group. The decision follows from Bauer Media Group’s intention to focus on the markets where it is among the leading players.
Poland’s economy will expand 4.4% in 2018, the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook. The projection for this year has been revised upwards by 0.3pp compared to the IMF’s previous forecast from April, reflecting “stronger-than-expected investment growth,” the IMF wrote.
Fitch Ratings upgraded Estonia's long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Rat- ings (IDR) to AA- with stable outlook. The up- grade comes primarily on the back of Estonia's strengthened external position and maintaining competitiveness due to a gradual shift in the tradeable sector towards higher value exports, Fitch said.
Latvia’s foreign trade deficit increased 35.4%
y/y to €395mn in August, provisional data re- leased by the country’s Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) showed. The widening of the deficit owes to imports once again growing clearly faster than exports in August.
Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar opened
a new CZK750mn (€29mn) logistics complex to increase its capacity. The company can now handle 70% more trucks per day, and is better able to manage fluctuations in demand.
Hungary's CPI reached a five and a half year high in September, as consumer prices acceler- ated to an annual 3.6% growth. The figure beats the Magyar Nemzeti Bank’s 3.4% forecast and the 3.5% median consensus of analysts.
FDI in Poland dropped substantially in 2017, coming in at PLN34.7bn (€8.1bn), which is a drop of 44.1% compared to 2016, when a record amount of PLN61.8bn of FDI arrived in the coun- try, a report from the National Bank of Poland (NBP) said.
The Slovak government approved the draft state budget for the next three years, with the public finance deficit at 0.1% of GDP next year and a balanced budget in 2020. The Ministry of Finance promised both debt and deficit will fall in the next two years before it records a surplus of 0.2% of GDP in 2021 for the first time in Slovakia’s history.
The Czech unemployment rate fell to 3% in September. There were 224,331 jobless people, the lowest number for September since 1996, the Czech Labour Office said. The labour shortage is the main obstacle to economic growth and signals an overheating of the Czech economy.