Page 5 - bne_newspaper_February_08_2019

The Regions This Week
February 8, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Central Europe
Hungary will adopt the euro "in the coming decades" and needs to learn from the lessons
of the past concerning the processes affecting the common currency, central bank (MNB) governor Gyorgy Matolcsy said. Matolcsy's comment signals that there is no change in the government's or in the MNB's positions regarding the intention to introduce the euro.
15 candidates will run in Slovakia’s spring 2019 presidential election. There is no clear frontrunner in the race, although a recent poll cited by Reuters puts European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic and scientist and entrepreneur Robert Mistrik in the lead.
Germany will invest €110mn to improve its military bases in Lithuania by 2021, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said. Germany leads a 1,200-strong Nato force in the Baltic state intended to shore up the Alliance’s eastern borders with Russia.
Poland’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) left interest rates at their current record low of 1.5%, once again hinting that any tightening of monetary policy might not come before the end of 2020. Fast economic growth accompanied by only moderate inflation provide no premises for
a change in monetary policy at the moment, the MPC said in the statement following the decision.
An EU anti-fraud committee visited Estonia and Denmark following the Danske Bank money laundering scandal. Members of the European Parliament's Special Committee on Tax Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance met with regulators, prosecutors and the bank's new management.
Czech energy company Sev.en signed an agreement to buy 50% of energy company InterGen from Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, will close in the next few
months. The acquisition of InterGen is considered to be an important step for Sev.en’s international expansion.
Hungary was ordered to pay Sodexo €73mn
in an arbitration ruling by the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The ruling concerned regulatory changes affecting the country's voucher system seven years ago.
Lithuania’s president rejected the nomination
of Irma Gudziunaite as environment minister, saying she lacks experience. Lithuania has been criticised for having the EU’s only all-male cabinet following Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis’s December reshuffle.
Trading on Poland’s Warsaw Stock Exchange main equities market totalled PLN20.3bn (€4.74bn) in January, growing 4.6% y/y. At the end of January, the bourse’s main WIG index stood at 60,367.42 points, equivalent to a fall of 8.6% y/y.
Swedish SCA is close to buying 10,000 hectares of forest land in Latvia from Latvian Forest Company. The two companies signed a letter of intent on the transaction, which would be worth around SEK260mn (€26mn).
Czech beer producer Budejovicky Budvar posted the highest revenues in its 123-year history in 2018. The company increased its output by 3.6% to 1.602mn hectolitres, the second highest level in the company’s 123-year history, driven by a by 7% y/y increase in sales of lagers.
Slovak economic growth reached its peak in 2018 at 4.3% and is expected to slow down to 4% this year, due to weakening demand abroad, according to a macroeconomic prognosis by the finance ministry. Despite a weaker estimate of Slovak economic growth, real salaries will increase by 4%. The unemployment rate will continue to fall until 2022.