Page 5 - bne_newspaper_March_29_2019

The Regions This Week
March 29, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Central Europe
The Czech police concluded their investigation into the long-running Stork's Nest case. Czech PM Andrej Babis, members of his family and their attorneys can now study the file and propose any additions to the investigation, a spokesman for the Prague municipal prosecutor said. The case will then proceed with a final proposal to the prosecutor.
Major breaches of anti-money laundering obligations were identified at Swedbank Estonia, found an internal Swedbank report quoted by Swedish public broadcaster SVT. Swedbank is being investigated by regulators in both Sweden and the Baltic states.
The potential introduction of US tariffs on cars will have an impact on the Slovak economy, particularly the Slovak automobile industry, said Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini during a European Council session. The Slovak Republic is the fifth largest exporter of cars to the US.
Estonian industrial production grew 4.4% y/y
in February, working-day adjusted data from Statistics Estonia showed. The expansion rate is 0.3pp below growth recorded in Estonian industry in January.
Standard & Poor's affirmed Latvia’s long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings at A-/A-1 with stable outlook. Latvia’s fragmented political scene and generally unstable party system do not stand in the way
of effective policymaking and sustained growth, S&P said.
Two Czech restaurants in Prague retained their Michelin stars in 2019. La Degustation Boheme Bourgeoise and Field are the only restaurants in the Czech Republic with this award.
Hungary is among seven European Union countries that "display traits of a tax haven and facilitate aggressive tax planning", according to a finding by the European Parliament's Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance. The other six countries are Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, and the Netherlands.
A Lithuanian court found a former Soviet defence minister guilty of war crimes over the crackdown on protesters at the TV tower in Vilnius as the Baltic state sought to break away from the USSR in 1991. Russia’s foreign ministry said the ruling was “unfriendly” and “provocative”.
The Polish unemployment rate dropped 0.7pp y/y to 6.1% in February, Poland’s statistical office GUS said. The unemployment level was only lower in the early 1990s, after which market reforms pushed it to well above the 10% mark and further to the peak of 20.7% recorded in February 2003. The unemployment rate has been trending down since early 2014 due to the tightening of the labour market.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called for swift action on migration and border protection during a three-day migration summit in Budapest. Hungary’s illiberal prime minister has turned the European parliamentary elections into a referendum on migration.
Slovakia's GDP is expected to rise by 3.5% year-on-year in 2019, down by 0.7 percentage points (pp) from the previous forecast, reflecting
a deceleration in foreign demand and relatively weak results of the automotive industry in big Eurozone countries, the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) said. The NBS’s growth forecast for 2020 stands at 3.4% (down by 0.6pp) and for 2021 at 2.8% (down by 0.2pp).