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The Regions This Week
November 17, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 9
Southeast Europe
The Croatian government survived a no-confi-
dence vote launched by the opposition over the way it handled the crisis after indebted food and retail giant Agrokor almost collapsed earlier this year. The no-confidence motion received just 59 votes in favour to 78 against in a vote on Novem- ber 11, showing the ruling coalition still has
a frail majority in parliament.
Romania’s currency fell to its weakest level against the euro since 2012. The leu dropped to nearly RON4.65 to the euro on November 13, and fundamentals show that unless a strong inflow of transfers from the European Union budget occurs in the coming quarters, the local currency will weaken further.
Macedonian MPs approved a law extending the official use of the Albanian language. The law is fiercely opposed by the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party.
The Serbian central bank lowered its 2017 GDP growth projection to 2% from 3% forecast in Au- gust. The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) said the contraction in the agriculture and energy sectors was the reason for the downgrade.
German investors are concerned about fiscal policy in Romania. The Romanian-German Cham- ber of Commerce and Industry (AHK) said recently adopted measures could negatively influence the investment climate and the country’s competitive- ness in the medium and long term.
All the Western Balkan countries, except Bos- nia, restored employment to its level before
the crisis in 2008 with around 230,000 jobs being created in 2017, the World Bank said. The region has relatively high unemployment level with youth unemployment being particularly high.
MPs from Bulgaria’s two biggest opposition parties boycotted the parliament and demanded
the resignation of speaker Dimitar Glavchev. MPs were angered when Prime Minister Boyko Borissov accused unnamed MPs of being involved in drug dealing and Glavchev added fuel to the fire by ordering opposition leader Kornelia Ninova to the leave the parliament when she raised the issue.
The Slovenian government believes the priva- tisation of NLB is not possible under current conditions. Ljubljana was supposed to sell 75% of the country’s largest bank by the end of 2017, but plans for an IPO were dropped in June.
A Serbian court issued suspended sentences for four people responsible for the 2008 fire
at the US embassy in Belgrade. The light sentences angered US diplomats, with an embassy statement saying the verdict was
“hard to believe”. Serbian protesters torched
the embassy after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, with the support of the US and other western governments.
Albania’s homicide rate fell below the EU aver- age. The number of homicides per 100,000 inhab- itants has fallen to 1.5, down from four in 2013, and below the the EU average of 1.7, Prime Min- ister Edi Rama said as he outlined plans to mod- ernise the country’s police force.
Norway’s Statkraft will put its Moglice hydro- power plant in Albania into operation in spring 2019. Albania generates most of its energy from hydropower.
The IMF praised Montenegro’s efforts to improve its fiscal discipline in order to reduce public spending and its high public debt. Montenegro’s government plans to decrease borrowing by €158.3mn (35% lower y/y) in 2018 compared to this year, when borrowing was set at €455mn.