Page 11 - bne IntelliNews Georgia country report November 2017

The Regions This Week
November 11, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Eastern Europe
Fresh Russian connections in US President Donald Trump's administration were revealed in the Paradise Papers. US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross was found to have a stake in shipping company Navigator through a chain of offshore investments, that is co-owned by Putin’s son-in- law and his petrochemical company Sibur.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is investigating alleged embez- zlement and false declaration charges against Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan.
The latest round of US sanctions against Russia will not apply retroactively to Russian energy export pipeline projects initiated before August 2 2017 much to the relief of the Kremlin.
The finance ministers of the European Un-
ion member states called for the creation of
a blacklist of tax havens to crack down on tax dodging which was highlighted yet again by the so called Paradise Papers leak this week.
Iraqi military forces captured and imprisoned 512 Russian women and 200 Azerbaijani women with ties to so-called Islamic State (IS). The North Caucasus and parts of the former Soviet Union have been major sources of militants for Islamic terrorist groups.
Russia's Consumer Price Index (CPI) in October fell again to an extraordinary low of 2.7% year- on-year down from the already low 3% seen in September. Inflation has strongly overshot the central bank's target of 4% set for 2017.
The EBRD has confirmed the forecast for the growth of Ukraine's GDP in 2017 at 2% and at 3% in 2018. The IMF also affirmed Russia's GDP growth outlook of 1.8% in 2017 and 1.6% in 2018.
Ukraine's foreign exchange reserves
have increased by $98mn, or 0.5% month-on-
month to $18.736bn. The result was due to the placement of local Eurobonds ($170.3mn) and swap operations (worth $100mn).
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expects to receive a total of $5.5bn in financing next year from donors including: $3.5bn from the IMF, $1.5bn proceeds from Eurobond placements and $500mn in financing from the World Bank.
The Belarusian economy is returning to growth after two years of recession says the EBRD which revised upward the forecast for Belarus' GDP growth to 1.5% in 2017 from a 0.5% contraction. The EBRD also improved 2018’s forecast to 2% growth.
The foreign exchange reserves of Belarus in- creased by $128.6mn or 1.8% month-on-month to $7.395bn in September, following the 3.9% m/m growth in October and 25.2% m/m jump in June.
Russia's largest lender state-controlled Sberbank broke its ordinary share price record of RUB200 on November 7 on the Moscow Exchange, cementing its status as the country's most valuable blue chip in terms of capitalisation.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has ap- proved the purchase of the Lviv-headquartered middle-sized VS Bank, a subsidiary of Russia's state-owned giant Sberbank.
Russian bankers Alexei and Dmitri Ananyev have abandoned merger plans and could sell Vozrozhdenie which they own together with their flagship bank, the troubled Promsvyazbank.
Opening the trading in shares of Russian met- als and energy major En+ to retail brokers on the London Stock Exchange on November 8 saw the company's market capitalisation immediately increase by $200mn.