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The Regions This Week
November 17, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Central Europe
The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the EU Council to launch the so-called “nuclear option” against Poland to punish Warsaw for its alleged abuse of the rule of law. The triggering of Article 7 of the Treaty on the European Union could in theory lead to suspension of Poland’s voting rights in the bloc.
Estonia is considering an IPO of the Port of Tallinn, the country’s largest port authority. The IPO is expected to take place in the first half of 2018 with about a third of the port’s shares planned for public trade, while the state will retain the controlling stake in the strategic infrastructure company.
The Lithuanian parliament passed a version of the Magnitsky Act. The legislation – technically a part of the law on the legal status of aliens — will allow the Baltic state to impose sanctions on individuals suspected of violating human rights or committing corruption.
The Czech Republic continued to grow the fastest in Central Europe in the third quarter (alongside Poland), but there are signs that the country’s strong expansion may already have peaked. Czech GDP grew by 5.0% year-on- year, the Czech Statistical Office announced in a preliminary estimate, the fastest rate for two years.
Audi is to start serial production of electric motors at its Hungarian plant next year,
which will become a manufacturing hub for the Volkswagen group. The entire drivetrain of Audi's first purely electric-powered SUV model will come from the factory in Gyor starting in 2018.
The European Investment Bank lent Polish rail infrastructure manager PKP-PLK €650mn for the modernisation of more than 1,000km of
Poland's railway network. The loan comes as financing under Poland’s so-called Master Plan for Railway Transport, which the largest CEE economy intends to roll out until 2030.
Slovak consumer prices continued to edge up
in October, rising to their highest level since early 2013, the Slovak Statistics Office reported. Prices have been rising since December, pushed up by the country's tight labour market.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Transport is going to recommend to the government that Lithuania rebuild the 19km section of rail track providing a shortcut to neighbouring Latvia. Vilnius' change of mind about the link, which was disman- tled in 2008, follows a fine of €28mn imposed on state-owned railway operator Lietuvos Gelezinke- liai by the European Commission in early October.
Polish core inflation rose 0.8% y/y in October,
the National Bank of Poland reported. The reading shows core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, slowed down after registering growth of 1% y/y the previous month, which was the highest point since June 2014.
Hungary’s parliament made an amendment
to the campaign financing act with support
from opposition parties. A major element of the legislation is that party leaders will bear financial responsibility if their parties fail to reach 1% of the vote.
The number of tourists visiting Latvia grew 11.8% y/y last year to a total of 964,100.
The average duration of a visitor's stay at an accommodation establishment was 1.9 nights, and overall, the number of nights spent at Latvian accommodation establishments grew 14.4 y/y to 1.86mn in July-September.