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The Regions This Week
July 21, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eastern Europe
The US Treasury has imposed a $2mn penalty on ExxonMobil over its alleged violation of Russia sanctions by signing documents with the head of Kremlin-controlled oil major Rosneft Igor Sechin, the Financial Times reported on July 21.
Russia's State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, approved a bill limiting the access of minority shareholders to corporate informa- tion, RBC business portal reported on July 20. The bill was reportedly lobbied in the Kremlin by state and private energy majors like Lukoil, Transneft, Tatneft, Surgutneftegas, and Rostec, and hinders corporate governance.
Just under half of Russians (45%) believe the “worst is yet to come” for them as the crisis un- winds, according to the state owned pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM). The pollster also found rising prices and falling savings are currently Russians’ biggest fears.
Russia's e-procurement system is failing to pre- vent insider deals, the Russian finance ministry found during an audit of the system. Over 94% of procurements by Russian state-owned companies and state institutions is not carried out on a com- petitive basis, RBC business daily reported.
Russian real disposable income left the nega- tive territory, and was flat y/y for the first time in years in June after falling only -0.1% in May. While real income has been growing for over half a year, real disposable incomes have been falling.
The volume of trade between Belarus and Ukraine in 2016 approached a record high worth $3.8bn dollars, an increase of 10% y/y. Ukraine is now Belarus’ second most important trade partner.
Russia’s Interior Ministry calculates that the av- erage size of a bribe in the capital is RUB614,000 ($10,397), Vedomosti reported citing the head of Research Affairs in Moscow, Oleg Bara.
Russian federal budget deficit was RUB489.1bn ($8.27bn) or 1.2% of GDP for the first half of 2017, according to preliminary estimates by the Finance Ministry. The nominal value of Russia’s GDP in January-June amounted to RUB42.3896 trillion ($716.6bn). The primary deficit amounted to RUB161.4bn, 0.4% of GDP.
Ukraine's goods trade deficit almost doubled y/y to $1.3bn in May, compared to $800mn a year ago, the State Statistics Service reported on July 14. Import growth is running ahead of export growth as Ukrainian's real incomes recover and the people go shopping again. At the same time companies have started to restructure and invest, sucking in machinery imports.
One in five (21.2%) of Belarus’ companies are making a loss. A total of 1,561 companies of private and state-owned firms excluding small- size enterprises are in the red in January-May, compared with 23.1% in the same period of 2016, Belstat reported.
Belarus economy has returned to growth ex- panding by 1% year-on-year in the first half of the year following 0.9% y/y growth in January- May, according to official data. The former Soviet republic's GDP was down 2.6% y/y in 2016, while the economy contracted by 3.9% y/y in 2015 after 1.6% y/y growth in 2014.
Belarus has almost raised enough to cover its debt obligations until the end of 2018, following a $1.4bn Eurobond issues and a large $700mn loan from Russia, Moody's Investors Service said in a note.
Russia increased its investments in US Treas- uries to the highest level since October 2014.
In May 2017 investment in US Treasuries rose by $3.8bn to $108.7bn, making Russia the 13th larg- est US creditor.