Page 6 - bne IntelliNews 26th May

The Regions This Week
May 26, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Southeast Europe
Nine people were given suspended sentences for their role in violent incidents in the Macedonian parliament at the end of April. The extremely light sentences have angered many in Macedonia.
Albania’s competition authority is investigating three mobile operators for changing their tariffs for pre-paid mobile phone customers. The com- panies, which have not been named, are suspect- ed of abusing their dominant position.
US President Donald Trump shoved past Monte- negrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic at a Nato summit. Video footage shows Trump pushing Markovic aside to get to the front row of a staged photo at Nato headquarters and then puffing his chest out. Montenegro is Nato’s newest member, with its accession expected to be completed on June 5.
Croatia’s largest insurer Adris’ Croatia Osiguran- je agreed to acquire BNP Paribas Cardif Osigu- ranje, currently owned by BNP Paribas. The deal is subject to approval from the Croatian Financial Supervisory Agency.
A Skopje court rejected a request from the Spe- cial Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) to freeze some of the assets of Macedonia’s conservative VMRO- DPMNE party. The SPO wanted the assets frozen as it conducts and investigation into suspected illegal party financing.
Prime ministers from the six Western Balkan countries confirmed their commitment to EU in- tegration at an informal gathering on May 24. The EU has put further enlargement on a back burner in recent years, discouraging would-be members from the region.
The mayor of the Moldovan capital was detained in a corruption probe. Chisinau mayor Dorin Chirtoaca is one of several officials arrested in an ongoing investigation related to paid parking in the city.
Montenegro’s industrial production fell 10.2%
y/y in April, easing from a 17.4% y/y decline in March. Overall production fell as the performance of the utilities sector worsened, even though this was partially offset by growing mining and manu- facturing output.
CEO Eugen Davidoiu claims Romanian flag car- rier Tarom was the victim of sabotage. Davidoiu blamed the airline’s losses on sabotage “from the inside and the outside”.
Members of families that own Turkey’s two biggest groups of companies sold stakes worth a combined sum of more than €500mn as the benchmark Turk- ish stock exchange index hit a record high on May 24. The sales made by the Koc and Sabanci family mem- bers prompted speculation that a possible retreat of index prices could be on the cards.
Bosnia’s foreign trade gap increased 1.5% y/y to BAM2.1bn (€1.1bn) in the first four months of 2017. Despite rising in the first third of the year, Bosnia’s trade gap is expected to continue last year’s downward trend in 2017, in line with gov- ernment efforts to boost exports and raise the competitiveness of local production.
The daughter of former Romanian President Traian Basescu was indicted in a corruption case, alongside Basescu ally former tourism minister Elena Udrea. The case concerns suspected brib- ery and money laundering related to the financing of Basescu’s 2009 presidential election campaign.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied
Russian lenders’ decisions regarding Croatia’s Agrokor are politically motivated. Food and retail giant Agrokor is currently in talks with Sberbank over a new loan.
Two Macedonian breweries were fined by the country’s competition watchdog for prevent-
ing distributers from determining the final re-
tail price of their beer. The fines may pose a major financial blow for local breweries Pivara Skopje and Prilepska Pivarnica.