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The Regions This Week
November 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 4
Central Europe
Sweden’s Södra bought Bergvik Skog AB’s forest holding in Latvia for €324mn. The deal covers 111,100 hectares of land, of which 80,300 are forest land.
The governor of Latvijas Banka Edgars Rimsevics is subject to another investigation by Latvia’s anti-corruption bureau KNAB, focussing on bribery and submitting false information to the US authorities, local media reported. KNAB alleges Rimsevics suggested a number of years ago that ABLV bank owner Ernests Bernis used lobbyists indicated by Rimsevics to represent the bank’s interests abroad.
A businessman close to the Hungarian
prime minister gained ownership of flagship construction company Kozgep, previously owned by former Fidesz cashier Lajos Simicska. The oligarch, who was the mastermind behind the ruling Fidesz’ finances from the early years, broke ranks with PM Viktor Orban in 2015.
The Czech government voted to opt out of the UN migration pact, joining other EU countries in rejecting the document. Czechia decided to follow the US, Austria, Bulgaria, and Hungary’s example and pull out of the pact promoting an internation- al approach to safe and orderly migration due to concerns over the legality of the deal.
Poland and the Baltic states are hosting Nato exercises. The exercise involves around 12,500 troops in Poland and approximately 5,000 troops in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Lithuanian producer prices grew 9.1% y/y in October, data released by Statistics Lithuania showed. The indicator’s growth pace added 0.2pp to the September reading, also marking two full years of consecutive annual PPI growth.
Czech economic growth came off the boil in October as the pan-regional boom in Central and Eastern Europe starts to lose momentum. GDP increased by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in 3Q18, and by 2.3% y/y in October, according to the preliminary estimate released by the Czech Statistics Office.
Polish GDP growth pushed to a seasonally adjusted 5.7% y/y in the third quarter,
a flash estimate released by the Central Statistical Office GUS showed. The result is a surprise on the upside, as consensus predicted a slowdown in the second half of the year after dynamic expansion in the first six months.
More than 400 Slovak journalists signed a statement condemning verbal attacks by former prime minister Robert Fico against the media.
In his video-blog, Fico criticised the negative coverage his party got over the municipal election results and said Smer-SD wants to win the 2020 general election so that “all those comedians among journalists shall be knocked out”.
Polish wages grew 7.6% y/y in the third quarter,
resulting in an average gross monthly pay packet of PLN4,580.2 (€1065.9), according to data released by statistical office GUS. In quarterly terms, wages grew 1.3%. The annual reading shows wage growth picked up speed from the 5% y/y expansion in the second quarter. The quarterly growth follows a surprise contraction of 3% q/q in April-June.
Newly founded Estonia 200 is now the country’s fifth most popular party, a poll showed. The Reform Party and the Centre Party remain the most popular parties.