Page 6 - bne IntelliNews newspaper 14 July 2017

The Regions This Week
July 14, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Central Europe
Czech Agriculture Minister Marian Jurecka called on the EU to finally address the issue of inferior supermarket products being sold in ‘second league’ Central and Eastern Europe compared to what is distributed in Western Eu- rope. He announced in-depth research results on 21 products that, for instance, revealed the Ger- man version of Persil contains 20% more active ingredient than the Czech one.
Czech carmaker Skoda Auto is studying whether it can adapt a low-cost production platform de- veloped by Tata Motors in order to build a budg- et car for the Indian market on behalf of the Volk- swagen Group. Skoda, wholly owned by Germany’s VW since 2000, and India’s Tata are also looking at the potential joint development of components.
Existing operators O2 Czech Republic and Voda- fone Czech Republic each gained a block of 40MHz in a 5G spectrum auction as did new entrant PODA. The other new entrant, Nordic Telecom 5G, acquired 80MHz, while Suntel Net and T-Mobile Czech Republic failed to win any. Current operators were restricted to 40MHz. The yield on 8-week Czech t-bills hit a new low of -0.4% at an auction as demand jumped due to a larger chunk of money chasing short-term paper after a redemption in June.
June’s slowing of Czech inflation and unemploy- ment’s descent to a 19-year low (under Labour Office figures) may have cleared the way for the central bank to raise its main interest rate for the first time in a decade during Q3. Annual inflation was 2.3% and unemployment stood at 4.0%.
The Czech Republic drew $156.2mn from foreign productions shooting in the country last year, marking the first fall in the figure since 2009. The drop was put at $10.3mn. Local producers are now pondering possible tweaks to the incen- tives system, while looking at how international projects continue to draw crew talent from the country.
Czech industrial production adjusted for one less working day grew at 10.7% y/y in May. Growth was again hindered by companies’ difficulties in finding enough skilled labour.
Hungarian industrial output rose 8.8% y/y in May, with working-day adjusted growth at 6.2%, driven by robust auto industry growth. The figures amounted to a bounceback. Unadjusted output fell 3% y/y in April.
Hungarian rightwing militants launched politi- cal movement Force and Determination to target Jobbik voters who feel disenfranchised by the par- ty's move to a more centrist position. The launch in a Budapest suburb was dubbed “the unfurling of the flag of the far right”.
TREI Real Estate, property arm of Germany’s Tengelmann retail group, sold 40 Spar stores in Hungary to Erste Asset Management for an un- disclosed sum. Hungary’s residential and property market is booming, spurred by government meas- ures such as lower VAT.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Hungary rose 4.5% y/y in May, against April’s 16% y/y. De- spite the slower growth, Hungary's tourism indus- try is still on course for another record year.
The European Commission is taking Poland to court over logging in Bialowieza Forest, one of the last and largest remaining parts of the im- mense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. Logging has reached a sig- nificant scale and Brussels wants it suspended immediately.
Polish unemployment fell by 1.5pp y/y to 7.2% in June, a preliminary estimate showed. The job- lessness level has not so low in June in 26 years. Employers are increasingly worried about a lack of available qualified labour.