Page 3 - bne_newspaper_January_11_2019

The Regions This Week
June 14, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
Central Europe
Poland signed a defence cooperation declaration with the US that could see Washington add
1,000 troops to its current forces in Poland. The declaration still needs to be followed by a final agreement. But the possibility of deployment
of more US troops onto Polish soil is seen as strengthening both the Polish-US alliance as well as Nato’s deterrence capability, aimed at Russia.
The authorities suspended the operating license of one of the largest fertiliser plants in Hungary owned by Laszlo Bige. The businessman said
he suspects revenge by the competition and in particular one person, but he did not go as far as naming anyone.
Leading low-cost airline Ryanair is preparing legal action against Czech start up Kiwi.com in the Irish High Court over the re-sale of its tickets, daily E15.cz reported. The Irish carrier forbids any re-selling of its tickets and only allows access to its flight information for price comparisons. Ticket purchase are supposed to be made exclusively via the company’s channels.
Latvia plans major changes to the leadership of its banking watchdog following a series of money laundering scandals. The changes are planned after a top US Treasury official said he had no faith in the Baltic state’s chief regulator.
Estonia was the top ranked country from the eastern part of the EU on the 2019 Digital Economy and Society Index, and was the only country from the region to score above average. Romania and Bulgaria were the lowest ranked countries on this year’s index.
Pale Fire Capital acquired a majority stake in the largest Czech auction portal Aukro, the Czech edition of Forbes reported. The transaction is
supposed to provide a new start for Aukro, whose revenue dropped to CZK1.5bn (€58.5mn) in 2018 from more than CZK6bn seven years ago.
Lithuanian producer prices grew 3.9% y/y
in May, data released by Statistics Lithuania showed. The indicator’s growth rate eased 1.2pp compared to the annual expansion recorded in April, marking the 31st consecutive month of annual PPI growth.
Hungarian property developer Wingholding announced a €100mn corporate bond programme. The company is to issue fixed or floating rate bonds with maturities of three to ten years. The bonds will be listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange.
The number of vacancies in Poland came in
at 142,500 in the first quarter, a reduction of 10,000 or 6.5% y/y, according to data released by statistics office GUS. The falling number
of vacancies does not counter the trend of long- term tightening of Poland’s labour market, where the workforce benefits from decreasing unemployment and wages rising as a result.
The Slovak central bank increased its counter- cyclical capital pillow from 1.5% to 2%. The banks will have to raise their counter-cyclical capital reserves from August 2020, said the Slovakia´s National Bank governor Peter Kazimir.
Latvia’s foreign trade deficit widened 104.5% y/y to €290.6mn in April, provisional data released by the country’s Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) showed. The trade balance deteriorated in the fourth month, as export growth slowed down to just 2.9% y/y to €1.06bn while imports improved by 15.3% y/y to €1.35bn.