Page 6 - bne_newspaper_August_3_2018

The Regions This Week
August 3, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Southeast Europe
A Turkish court rejected an appeal by US
pastor Andrew Brunson to be released from house arrest for the duration of the remainder
of his trial on terror and espionage charges. Both US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have made strenuous appeals to Turkey to release the evangelical pastor from North Carolina.
6,000 illegal migrants have entered Croatia from Bosnia & Herzegovina since the end of last year, an official at Bosnia's service for aliens said. A new migrant route to the EU has opened up in the Western Balkans — from Greece via Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia to EU member Croatia — since the closure of the main route across the region in 2016.
The process of selecting a candidate to head Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) will be restarted as all candidacies filed by the July 23 deadline were rejected. In July Roma- nian President Klaus Iohannis finally signed the controversial decree dismissing former DNA head Laura Codruta Kovesi, as requested by the Consti- tutional Court.
Kosovan President Hashim Thaci dismissed the idea raised by Serbia of partitioning Kosovo as part of the EU-mediated dialogue for stabilisation of relations between the two countries. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is still not recognised as a separate country by Belgrade, and the long-running dis- pute between the two sides is hindering the EU aspirations of both.
Slovenian pharmaceutical giant Krka Group raised its net profit by 11% y/y to €101.7mn in the first half of 2018. Krka achieved its highest sales figure for the first half of any year since the com- pany was founded.
Albania's central bank kept its key inter-
est rate unchanged at 1%, but will continue with
foreign currency purchases on the domestic market to prevent rapid appreciation of the local currency against the euro. The last time the key rate was lowered was on June 6, by 0.25pp, after it was kept at the previous record low level of 1.25% since May 2016.
Austria’s Wienerberger is acquiring a plant in northwest Romania near the Hungarian bor- der and is upgrading and enlarging its existing production sites in Croatia and Hungary. The investments are part of the company’s plan to strengthen its concrete paver business under the Semmelrock brand by investing in the growth markets of Eastern Europe.
The German retail group Metro is seeking
to sell its real estate assets in Romania and Bulgaria under the sell-and-leaseback model, Ziarul Financiar daily reported quoting unofficial sources. It has already hired Goldman Sachs
to find a buyer for the properties in the two countries, sources said.
Macedonian public debt totalled €5.139bn at the end of the second quarter of 2018, compared to €4.787bn at end-2017, finance ministry data showed. The European Commission recently
said that stabilising and reducing the country's debt ratio would require more ambitious fiscal consolidation.
Kosovo scrapped 30% import duties on a range of fruits and vegetables following pressure from its trading partners. The measure was introduced in July with the aim of protecting domestic producers.
Moldova lawmakers voted to schedule the next parliamentary elections for February 24, 2019, rather than the end of November which was previ- ously mulled by the ruling coalition’s leaders. The parliament speaker explained that the elections are being delayed to allow parties to adjust their strategies to the new electoral law.