Page 5 - bne_newspaper_May_17_2019

The Regions This Week
May 17, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Central Europe
Two centre-right economists will battle it out to become Lithuania’s next president in a run-off vote, results of the presidential election showed. The incumbent Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis dropped out of the race.
Hungary aims to strengthen its strategic alliance with the US, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at
a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House. The visit marks the end of a 2.5-year diplomatic mission to arrange the meeting, which comes days before the European Parliament election.
The number of tourists visiting Latvia grew 1.3% y/y to nearly 460,000 in the first quarter, the Central Statistical Bureau said. Tourists from European countries made the top 10 visiting groups in the first quarter, with the most – at just over 58,000 - coming from Russia, although the number of Russian tourists dropped 6.4% y/y.
The payment discipline of Slovakia’s companies is the worst in Europe, according the European Payment Practices 2018 study conducted by EOS KSI in 17 countries examining 3,400 companies. 27% the payments by Slovak firms arrive either late or never.
Moody’s affirmed Estonia’s issuer ratings at A1 with stable outlook. The affirmation of the rating comes on the back of the dynamism and resilience of the Estonian economy and very low debt levels with the country’s susceptibility to geopolitical risks balancing out the positives to an extent.
The Czech National Bank (CNB) posted its biggest loss ever from investment in shares
of CZK26.9bn (€1.04bn), the bank reported in its 2018 annual report. “The reason is a decline in
stock markets,” explained CNB spokeswoman Marketa Fiserova, daily E15.cz reported.
Slovakia’s GDP posted y/y growth of 3.7% in the first quarter of this year at constant prices, driven mostly by industry and household consumption. Seasonally adjusted, GDP increased by 3.8% y/y and by 0.9% month-on-month, according to data published by the Slovak Statistics Office.
The unemployment rate in Estonia came in at 4.7% in the fourth quarter, falling 2.1pp y/y, data from Statistics Estonia showed. The joblessness rate thus remains at an 11-year low as an effect of persisting strong demand for labour. Estonia’s small labour market has been tightening in recent years because of an ageing population and emigration.
Hungary's industrial output rose 8% y/y in March, according to both raw and adjusted figures, up from 5.9% in the previous month, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said. In a monthly comparison, industrial output was 1%.
Polish GDP growth surprised to the upside,
a flash estimate showed. The economy grew a seasonally adjusted 4.6% y/y in the first quarter, maintaining the expansion rate recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018. The result is above the consensus that expected growth of 4.4% y/y and shows the Polish economy defying the slowdown abroad, especially in the Eurozone, Germany in particular.
PPF Bank owed by the richest Czech Petr Kellner increased its net profit by 45% (CZK681mn [€26.4mn]) year-on-year in 2018 to CZK2.2bn (€85.4mn), with its total assets amounting to CZK235bn (€9.1bn), the bank reported.