Page 7 - bne_newspaper_February_09_2018

The Regions This Week
February 9, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Central Europe
PKN Orlen’s CEO Wojciech Jasinski has been dismissed by the supervisory board of the Polish state-controlled oil refiner. A longtime loyal functionary of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, he had taken over at PKN Orlen shortly after PiS’ victory in the election in 2015. Jasinski is replaced by Daniel Obajtek, who is moving to PKN Orlen from the position of CEO of another state-controlled company, Energa.
The Polish unemployment rate came in at 6.9% in January, a drop of 1.6pp y/y, the labour ministry stated in a preliminary estimate.
Hungary's industrial output dropped by 0.5% y/y in December, down from a 3.4% increase in the previous month, according to preliminary figures. The adjusted figures showed a 4.5% annual in- crease and 1.2% growth from November as there were two fewer work days this year.
Hungary's retail sales decelerated from a 6.7% growth in November to 4.7% in December, ac- cording to preliminary figure.The calendar-adjust- ed figures showed a 5.9% rise and for 2017 growth came in at 4.7%.
The caretaker Czech government of billionaire populist Andrej Babis this month expanded the fast-track scheme enabling employers to bring in Ukrainian workers. It will be doubled to 19,600 this year. There are already 117,000 legally resi- dent Ukrainians in the country, making it the larg- est foreign community.
Czech unemployment in January rose to its highest level since August at 3.9%, up from December’s 3.8%. According to analysts, the figure remained flat (down 0.05pp) when season- ally adjusted, and it was down 1.4pp compared to January 2017.
Czech industrial production fell by 1.5% month-
on-month in December, seasonally and calendar adjusted, but rose by 8.0% year-on-year, calendar adjusted. Non-adjusted industrial production was up 2.7% y/y.
Czech retail sales fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.8% month-on-month in December, but were still up a calendar-adjusted 7.1% year-on-year. Unadjusted, retail sales were up 4.7% y/y.
Czechia’s foreign trade deficit fell by three quarters year-on-year in December to CZK2.2bn, according to preliminary figures. Compared to November, seasonally adjusted exports rose
by 2.2% and imports by 1.3%. Compared to De- cember 2016, exports fell by 0.1% to CZK247.2bn, and imports fell by 2.5% to CZK249.4bn.
Slovak retail sales rose by 5.6% year-on-year in December. In 2017 as a whole, retail sales rose by 6.0%.
Latvia will be the fastest growing economy in the Baltics this year, the European Commission predicted in its winter economic forecast. The Latvian economy is predicted to grow 3.5% in 2018, unchanged from the EU executive’s previous forecast. Estonian GDP is expected to grow 3.3% in 2018, an upward revision of 0.1pp in comparison to the November forecast. The Lithuanian economy is predicted to expand 2.9% in 2018, the same rate as predicted by the Commission
in November.
Estonia's consumer price index (CPI) growth accelerated to 3.5% in annual terms in January from 3.4% y/y the previous month.
Latvia's calendar adjusted industrial production growth picked up speed to 5.5% y/y in December. The gain marks the sixteenth positive monthly reading in a row.