Page 8 - bne_newspaper_September_7_2018

The Regions This Week
September 7, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Central Europe
The Czech government agreed with unions to spend 8% more on public sector wages in 2018, up from the planned 6%, Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Finance Minister Anna Schillerova said after meeting with union representatives. The increase will not be across the board. Many work- ers will get a 4% increase; policemen and soldiers will get 2% extra, plus danger pay; and teachers should get 10% more.
Officials from the three Baltic states urged Walmart to remove Soviet emblems from its T- shirts and other products. “The promotion of such symbols resonates with a big pain,” Lithuania’s ambassador to the US wrote to the retail giant.
Polish state investment fund PFR acquired a 35% stake in Solaris Bus & Coach, a bus maker special- ising in electric and other low-emissions bus types that it sells to city transport companies in Poland and internationally. The previous day, 100% of Sola- ris was sold to Spanish train and tram maker CAF.
Latvia demanded €82mn compensation for Lithuanian Railways’s closure of the Mažeikiai- Renge railway. The Lithuanian operator said in August it is launching a tender for reconstruction of the line which was dismantled a decade ago.
Two Estonian citizens were detained on sus- picion of spying for Russia. One of the two had been working at the headquarters of the country’s defence forces.
A Chinese manufacturer of suitcases will move production to the small Slovak city of Svidnik. Starting with 15 people, the company plans to scale up production and employ more workers.
Troubled Hungarian bus manufacturer Ikarus Egyedi failed to reach an agreement with its main creditor, MKB Bank. Hungarian investor Csaba Meszaros, the company's sole owner, has offered his 99% holding to creditors but MKB Bank as the biggest creditor rejected the offer.
Polish PMI continued its falling streak in Au- gust. PMI fell 1.5 points to 51.4 in August, a 22-month low, IHS Markit reported, indicating that the reduction of the current strength of Poland’s industrial sector could be imminent.
Czechia’s economic growth decelerated to 2.4% y/y in the second quarter of 2018 from 4.2% growth in the first quarter as the economy runs up against its structural limits, the Czech Statis- tics Office (CSU) said. The main reason is a strong base effect from the previous year, but the slow- down was also due to depleted capacities of the Czech economy, analysts say.
Hungary’s Matrai Eromu is planning huge in- vestments in the coming year and intends to increase reliance on biomass, solar power and refuse-derived fuel. The company is Hungary's second-biggest power plant after nuclear power plant Paks and is owned by a proxy of Prime Min- ister Viktor Orban, Lorinc Meszaros.
Latvia's calendar-adjusted industrial produc- tion grew 3.6% y/y in July, the Central Statistical Bureau reported. The annual growth in the sev- enth month is the fastest since December, provid- ing some hope that the period of feeble growth – and a one-off contraction – that lasted from April till June, is over.
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