Page 7 - bne_newspaper_February_23_2018

The Regions This Week
February 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Central Europe
The six Central and Eastern European stock exchanges intend to tighten cooperation in order to deal better with the challenges of upcoming reforms of the financial and capital markets pushed by the EU. Another challenge is the fallout of Brexit, the CEOs of the region’s six stock exchanges said.
Lithuania will support Poland in Warsaw’s ongoing argument with the European Commission over judiciary reforms, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said after meeting Polish peer Andrzej Duda. Lithuania could join with Hungary in blocking any EU sanctions on Poland, making it impossible for the bloc to remove Warsaw's voting rights under the Article 7 procedure.
2017 was another low point for human rights in Hungary, according to human rights watchdog Amnesty International. Hungary’s performance in preserving human rights has deteriorated in certain areas even compared to 2016, the organisation claimed.
Czech GDP rose by a seasonally adjusted 5.1% y/y in the fourth quarter of 2017. Quarter-on- quarter, GDP rose by 0.5%. In the whole of 2017 GDP rose by 4.5%.
Poland broke EU nature conservation laws by logging in the Bialowieza Forest, an adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union said. The opinion by Advocate General Yves Bot marks a setback for Warsaw in the dispute over logging in the forest, a remnant of Europe’s primeval woodland and a unique biodiversity spot.
Bucharest listed cable, internet and telecom service provider Digi is in the testing phase of
its service in Hungary. Market players have been bracing for the entrance of Hungary’s fourth mobile operator since Digi was awarded a license in 2014 to set up its mobile network.
The Latvian unemployment rate fell 1.2pp on the year to 8.1% in the fourth quarter of 2017. Meanwhile, the employment rate grew 2pp y/y to 63.7%.
Unions said Czech carmaker Skoda Auto was “spitting in their face” with its wage offer. The unions also threatened to boycott future pay talks if Skoda insisted on tying wage negotiations to what they said were “ridiculous” talks about an atypical shift pattern.
Luxembourg’s foreign minister replied to blunt verbal attacks from his Hungarian counterpart, who called him a “stupid man” who “hates Hungary”. Jean Asselborn said he does not hate Hungary, nor the government, but the country is heading in a bad direction.
Seasonally-adjusted Slovak GDP rose by 3.6% y/y in the fourth quarter of 2017, and by 0.9% q/q, according to preliminary data. Analysts said that it looked like the economy was driven by household consumption and investment, but exports should start to contribute more towards the end of the year as car production is ramped up.
Polish retail sales grew 7.7% y/y in constant prices in January, statistics office GUS announced. The reading marks a clear uptick in the pace of growth after turnover expanded only 5.2% y/y in December, although the slack owed to calendar effects.
Fitch Ratings affirmed Lithuania at 'A-' with
a stable outlook. The rationale for the rating
is based on the Baltic state’s prudent fiscal management, institutional strengths and a credible policy framework that come with EU and eurozone membership, the ratings agency said.