Page 5 - bne_newspaper_July_26_2019

The Regions This Week
July 26, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Central Europe
South Korean Hyundai plans to start
producing electric cars in the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech (HMMC) plant in Nosovice in 2020. Hyundai apparently wants to make Nosovice its overseas base for ecological cars.
Lithuania has potential offshore wind capacity of up to 3.35GW, a report commissioned by the Lithuanian energy ministry found. The study by Klaipeda University’s Marine Research Institute identified offshore areas where wind farms would be possible as Vilnius seeks to boost renewable energy generation.
An equality march in the northeastern Polish city of Bialystok was attacked by men linked to football hooliganism and nationalist circles, their violence incited by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and the Catholic church, critics claim. The issue of LGBT+ rights has become one of the central themes ahead of autumn general election in Poland.
Trade unionists launched a petition to Slovak Prime Minister Petr Pellegrini to deal with the situation in the steel industry in response to the announcement that US Steel Kosice in Slovakia would reduce its workforce by 20% by 2021, and to raise this question in Brussels.
A French court rejected a claim for compensation for victims of a ferry that sank en route from Estonia to Sweden in 1994. 852 people were killed when the MS Estonia sank
in one of Europe’s deadliest maritime tragedies, despite the ferry being assessed as seaworthy by French certification agency Bureau Veritas.
Latvia's producer price index (PPI) grew 2.5% y/y in June, data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) showed. The annual expansion came in at 0.6pp below the annual reading in May, but still pushed the duration of the
PPI growth series to 28 months straight.
The dominant player on the Czech sparkling wine market Bohemia Sekt finally came out of stagnation in 2018, when it increased its sales by 6.3% y/y to CZK1.7bn (€66.5mn), its annual report showed. The company expects its economic and financial situation to remain stable in 2019.
German carmaker Audi will spend HUF41bn (€126mn) at its Hungarian factory in Gyor, western Hungary to expand its vehicle manufacturing infrastructure, engine development centre and electric motor unit. The investment will be completed by the end of 2020.
The Polish unemployment rate dropped 0.5pp y/y to 5.3% in June, 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 June 2003.
Around 550,000 tourists visited Slovakia in May
and spent almost 1.5mn nights there, setting a new record, the Slovak Ministry of Transport and Construction said. The IIFH Ice Hockey World Championship contributed greatly to the record numbers.
Hungary's leading energy drink maker expand- ed production by inaugurating a new production line at its base in northeast Hungary. The invest- ment has been backed by a HUF1bn (€3.1mn) grant under the government's large company support scheme for companies ineligible for
EU funding.
Lithuanian industrial production grew 1.6% y/y in June on a calendar-adjusted basis, according to data from Statistics Lithuania. A more pronounced growth of industrial production is expected to return in the coming months, keeping economic growth on the steady expansion trajectory.