Page 8 - bne_newspaper_June_22_2018

The Regions This Week
June 22, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eastern Europe
More than 1.5mn Russians signed an online peti- tion initiated by the Russian Labour Confedera- tion on Change.org protesting against the recent decision to dramatically hike retirement ages. Opposition blogger Andrei Navalny has called for protests in 20 cities on July 1.
The European Union extended sanctions against Russia's annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by one year until June 2019. However, most Russians polled by the All-Russia Public Opinion Center (67%) said they feel no impact of anti- Russian sanctions.
Ukraine is going to create an EU lobbying group tasked with stopping the construction of the second section of the Russian Nord Steam II gas pipeline, according to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. "Nord Stream II is an absolutely political project against Ukraine, which has no economic component, trying to take away from Ukraine a budget of almost $3bn," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.
The Central Bank of Russia forecasts a gradual natural acceleration of annual growth of food prices in the coming months after deflation
in May, according to the regulator's report on monetary policy. Inflation in Russia in May was 0.4%, in annual terms remained at 2.4%. Food inflation was 0.4% in annual terms, and in monthly terms deflation was observed at the level of 0.1%.
Russia's statistics bureau Rosstat significantly revised its previous series on industrial output, with industrial growth rate increasing by strong 1.4pp y/y on average in the period of January 2017 and April 2018. The result caught many analysts by surprise
Swedish furniture major Ikea plans to boost on- line sales in Russia from the current 7% to 15%- 20% of sales in the coming two to three years, the company said. Ikea launched online sales in
Russia in 2013, starting with Siberia and started online deliveries in Central Russia in 2017.
Belarusian state-owned heavy truck manufac- turer BelAZ saw exports jump by 58.9% year-on- year in January-May, the company said. In May, the company sold 116 vehicles, which is BelAZ's the best result in the last 3.5 years.
The amount of pirated software used in Russia in 2016-2017 declined by 2pp to its lowest level since 2013, but illegal software remains installed on two-thirds (62%) of all devices, Vedomosti daily said citing a study by Business Software Alliance (BSA).
Russian aviation group S7 Group controlled by Natalia and Vladislav Filevs intends to invest $300mn in acquiring and renovating 36 Soviet space rocket engines NK-33 and NK-43 from the state as it eyes the commercial space launch market.
Retail trade in Belarus increased by 10.1% y/y to BYN17.2bn ($8.6bn) in January-May, accord- ing to the national statistics agency Belstat.
Russia cut the share of US Treasury bonds (T- bonds) in its Fx/gold reserves to a 10-year low. The amount of T-bonds held in Russia's growing reserves has been cut from $96.1mn in April to $48.7mn now.
Ukraine’s real GDP rose 3.1% y/y in January- March, or 0.9% q/q on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to Ukrstat. The nation's real GDP accelerated from a 2.2% y/y growth in October- December 2017.
Russian development bank Vnesheconom- bank (VEB) will get a part of the RUB3 trillion ($47bn) state infrastructure fund in its capital. VEB is being beefed up under Kremlin insider Shuvalov and made into a key player in the state investment drive planned in Vladimir Putin's May Decrees.