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The Regions This Week
August 11, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Southeast Europe
Turkey began building a wall along its border
with Iran that the government says will stop smugglers and the infiltration of Kurdish mili- tants. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged insurgency battles in Turkey since 1984, has a camp inside Iran.
The project to build a coal-fired power plant in Romania’s Rovinari could be revived. Bucharest resumed talks with China Huadian Engineering after the Chinese company was selected to build the new power plant.
Bulgaria’s investment agency granted priority status to a project dubbed Bulgaria’s Las Vegas. The Chinese-funded Saint Sofia development will include hotels, casinos, a water park and retail centres.
A controversial property tax will be postponed in Croatia. The tax, planned as part of a wider tax re- form, sparked protests from homeowners, caus- ing Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to announce an indefinite delay in its implementation.
Moldova’s consumer prices edged down for
the second month in a row in July (by 0.9% m/m) while annual inflation remained roughly flat. Regulated and food prices are responsible for the surge in inflation, from 2.4% y/y at the end
of last year.
Serbia’s first Ikea store opened close to the capital Belgrade as part of the Swedish retailer’s expansion in southeast Europe. Ikea is expecting up to 2mn visits a year and will also launch an online order service for customers in other parts of the country.
Wildfires threatened Albania’s fourth largest city of Elbasan, where some residents in the out- skirts were forced to evacuate. Hot, dry weather recently has resulted in large areas of Albania, Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro being af- fected by fires.
Assets of commercial banks in Bosnia & Her- zegovina increased by 8.3% y/y to BAM26.87bn (€13.74bn) in June, after rising 8.2% y/y the previ- ous month. The assets in June equalled 84.3% of Bosnia’s projected GDP.
Serbian defence companies have signed export contracts worth $754mn, Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin said. In 2016, Serbia’s govern- ment invested €46mn in the industry, which is expected to result in exports of more than €1bn within the next five to six years.
Anadolu Efes and Anheuser Busch InBev will merge their businesses in Russia and Ukraine. The announcement follows Belgium-headquar- tered AB InBev's acquisition of a 24% stake in Anadolu Efes as part of the former's combination with SABMiller, which completed in October 2016.
The Turkish government allowed a group of German lawmakers to visit soldiers at Konya airbase next month as part of a Nato delega- tion. Turkey and Germany have been at odds over visits to military personnel since Ankara blocked a planned visit by German politicians to Incirlik air base after Berlin granted asylum to several Turk- ish military officers allegedly affiliated with the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Slovenian car industry supplier Cimos is closing plants in Bosnia and Serbia as part of its restruc- turing plan. The restructuring was launched after Cimos — which had been in serious financial diffi- culties — was acquired by TCH Cogeme, a subsidi- ary of Italian fund Palladio Finanziaria, in May.
Bulgaria's industrial production increased 3.6% y/y in June, cooling from a revised 9.4% y/y rise in May on the back of worsened performance in the manufacturing sector. On a seasonally-adjusted monthly comparison basis, output fell 1.4% in June, reversing a revised 2.5% m/m hike in May.