Page 4 - bne_newspaper_September_14_2018

The Regions This Week
September 14, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 4
Central Europe
Polish President Andrzej Duda called the EU
an “imaginary community, from which Poland benefitted only a little”. His remark caused uproar in that part of the uproar among Poles that do not side with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party,
of which Duda is an iron loyalist.
After years of stagnation, sales in Slovakia’s chemical and pharmaceutical industry expanded by 7.1% y/y in the first half of 2018 to €5.11bn, president of the Chemical and Pharmaceutical In- dustry (ZCHFP) Roman Karlubik told local media.
The government body created after the country’s third-largest bank ABLV went under has come up with a new action plan for a more efficient fight against money laundering in Latvia. The plan follows the evaluation of Latvia’s efforts to combat money laundering from the Council of Europe’s Moneyval Committee.
The Czech National Bank might raise the main interest rate twice before the end of 2018, gov- ernor Jiri Rusnok told Reuters. The central bank’s board will meet on September 26 and the market anticipates with higher than 70% probability there will be yet another hike.
Bridgestone is planning a €28mn expansion
in Hungary. The local unit of the Japanese tyre maker announced the launch of a HUF9.2bn (€28.3mn) investment at its base in Tatabanya, 100km west of Budapest, which the government will support with a HUF826mn grant.
Six EU member states from CEE make little or no effort to enforce laws criminalising foreign brib- ery, a new report from Transparency International
revealed. They are among 22 countries account- ing for 39.6% of global exports who are failing to enforce the OECD anti-bribery convention.
Poland could have 10 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in the Baltic Sea by 2025-2030, a gov- ernment official said. The Polish power sector is facing an increased cost of electricity generation, as its coal-fired power plants – which produce some 80% of its electricity – pay more for permits to emit carbon dioxide.
The investigation into money laundering at the Estonian branch of Danske Bank covered $150bn (€130bn) worth of transactions, a report by the Wall Street Journal claimed. Denmark’s biggest lender Danske Bank is carrying out an internal investigation into inadequate monitoring of money it handled between 2007 and 2015, with results expected to be made public this month.
Passenger numbers at Hungary’s Budapest air- port hit a new record in August. Hungary’s tourism industry had its best year ever in 2017, and the sec- tor is set for another record year in 2018 as hotels in Budapest and at Lake Balaton have been operat- ing at close to full capacity during the summer.
The Slovak government approved a pilot version of the National Investment Plan for 2018-2030 involv- ing Slovakia's priority topics and key long-term de- velopment programmes. For now, the plan contains 82 projects worth more than €26bn until 2030.
Amidst the economic boom, Czechs are less willing to pay for credit card loans, the latest data show. In July, customers took out credits for CZK19.5bn (€760mn) – the lowest number since August 2010.
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