Page 5 - bne_newspaper_August_3_2018

The Regions This Week
August 3, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Central Europe
Estonian prosecutors launched a criminal in- vestigation into Danske Bank over allegations of involvement in money laundering. Media reported last month that up to €7bn could have been laun- dered through the Danish bank’s Estonian opera- tions.
Slovakia’s president said Russia’s pro-Putin Night Wolves' base is a security threat. President Andrej Kiska made the statement in response to the news that the Night Wolves had established a base in the village of Dolna Krupa, 70km north- east of Bratislava.
Leading Hungarian lender OTP agreed to buy the Albanian and Bulgarian units of Societe Gen- erale. The deal fits well with the strategy of OTP, which has set foreign expansion as a key priority.
Poland's consumer price index grew 2% y/y in July, retaining the expansion rate seen in June, statistics office GUS announced in a flash esti- mate. The reading is in line with market consen- sus, keeping inflation at the highest point since December.
The Czech Financial Authority is checking that Airbnb proprietors are meeting their tax obli- gations. The effort to regulate Airbnb is part of a wider effort to regulate the so-called shared economy.
The Lithuanian authorities urged civil serv-
ants and consumers not to install the Yandex Taxi app, claiming it may unlawfully be collecting user data. The head of Lithuania's National Cyber security centre Rytis Rainys told AP the centre is carrying out tests of the Russian taxi-booking app.
Latvia’s central bank governor will be allowed to name his replacement on the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) policy-making board, even though governor Ilmars Rimsevics has been charged with accepting the offer of a €500,000 bribe, and is currently barred from participating in ECB meetings.
The Czech unions ZO OS KOVO Energetika has criticised the way international steel and mining giant ArcelorMittal is negotiating the sale of its assets in Czechia. The group is not transparent and is unfair to its employees, unions claimed.
Hungarian oil and gas company MOL signed
a strategic cooperation agreement with Ger- man plastics recycler APK. MOL will support the completion of APK's recycling plant in Merseburg, Germany, as the first step in the cooperation. APK has developed a proprietary technology for recy- cling pre- and post-consumer plastic waste.
The Polish budget posted a surplus of PLN9.5bn (€2.2mn) in January-June, the Ministry of Finance said. The factors behind the budget’s current positive position remain unchanged: fast economic growth that supports increased tax revenue, which is partially originating from the current and previous governments’ efforts
to reduce VAT evasion.
The number of British companies in Slovakia decreased in the first half of 2018, while basic capital increased, an analysis by Bisnode consul- tancy concerning Brexit showed. While last year was record-breaking with 359 new British compa- nies founded in Slovakia, the number dropped by 74 in the first six months of 2018.
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