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The Regions This Week
March 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eastern Europe
US Energy major ExxonMobil confirmed on March 1 it will pull out of all joint projects with Russian oil company Rosneft due to US sanc- tions, the company said in a statement. The companies signed a strategic partnership worth $200-300bn back in 2011, but since 2015 Exxon has been pulling back under pressure from the US authorities.
Ukraine parliament passed a bill for a watered down version of the anti-corruption court on March 1 that will not satisfy the country’s donors. Submitted by President Petro Poroshenko, the bill does not comply with recommendations from the EU’s Venice Commission, which were a donor’s precondition for restarting aid.
Former Ukrainian prime minister and Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) faction leader Yulia Tymoshenko attacked Yakiv Smolii,
the candidate to take over as governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). Tymoshenko said Smolii’s candidature is "unacceptable" and told leaders of other factions to oppose his appointment to the NBU job.
Kremlin is preparing a new set of "May Decrees" ahead of the March 2018 presidential election, RBC business portal reported on February 26 cit- ing unnamed sources in the federal government. The first set of decrees were first drafted in 2012 prior to previous re-election of President Vladimir Putin and set out ambitious social spending goals for the regional governments.
The Council of the European Union on Febru- ary 23 extended for one year a limited set of remaining sanctions against Belarus, which include an arms embargo and an asset freeze and a travel ban against four former law enforcement officials.
Ukraine met 41% of its European integration commitments in 2017, the nation's Deputy Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said on
February 23. Ukraine signed the Association Agreement with the EU in 2014 and the deal took full effect on September 1, 2017. The agreement was signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in June 2014 after it was rejected in November 2013 by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, an event that triggered the EuroMaidan revolt.
Russian regions will receive RUB20bn ($357mn) to increase the minimum wage, Interfax reported citing the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Maxim Topilin. As of May 1 2018 the minimum monthly wage will increase to RUB11,163 ($199), which is currently the amount of the average minimum subsistence wage in the country.
Russia’s manufacturing PMI index stumbled in February, highlighting the fragile nature of the country’s economic recovery. The index barely budged posting a 50.2 score, only just above the 50 no-change mark, its smallest increase in over a year and half.
In 2017 foreign investors injected $9.7bn into Belarus' economy (except for banks), says the National Statistics Committee of Belarus. The primary investors were from Russia (38% of the total investment), the United Kingdom (26.6%), and Cyprus (7.2%). Foreign direct investment made up $7.6bn, or 78.5% of the total.
Real wages in Ukraine grew 12.3% year-on-year in January following a 18.9% y/y growth in the prior month, according to Ukrstat. The average monthly nominal wage decreased to UAH7,771 ($271) in January from UAH8,777 in December.
Ukraine's industrial production increased
by 3.6% year-on-year in January, the state statistics service Ukrstat reported on February 23. Industrial production adjusted the effect of calendar days increased by 2.9% y/y. At the same time, industrial production in January compared to the previous month fell by 13.9%.