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The Regions This Week
July 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Southeast Europe
The UK plans to nearly double the funding it
provides to the Western Balkans to £80mn (€90.5mn) for 2020-2021 from £41mn for 2018- 2019 to help the region fight against organised crime. British Prime Minister Teresa May said London’s commitment to the region would not be diminished by Brexit.
Over 30,000 people commemorated the victims of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, burying 35 more victims at the Potocari memorial. Instead of uniting the politically unstable country, this an- niversary shows how deeply divided it remains as most Bosnian Serbs neither attend the ceremo- nies nor recognise the genocide.
Romania endorsed a tighter taxation regime for its offshore natural gas perimeters. The news disappointed investors in the Romanian sector
of the Black Sea, who expected a milder taxation regime, while the opposition complained about a lack of transparency.
President Nicolas Maduro invited Turkish com- panies to invest in Venezuela. Venezuela aims to get ahead in the petrochemistry field in coopera- tion with Turkey, Maduro told the Turkey–Venezue- la Business Forum in Istanbul.
Croatians are splashing out as their national team advances to the World Cup final. Buoyed by their team’s success, during the month-long tournament Croatians are expected to spend an extra HRK2bn (€270mn) compared to the same period last year.
Nato member Slovenia will increase its defence budget to 1.24% of GDP by 2024 by 2024, outgo- ing Prime Minister Miro Cerar said. Ljubljana earmarked 1% of GDP for its defence budget in 2018, just half the target set for members of the alliance.
Bulgaria pledged to strengthen its banking sector hoping to get a green light for its much
desired entry into the Eurozone’s waiting room, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM2). Bulgaria meets the nominal criteria to adopt the European common currency, with its currency
– the Bulgarian lev – pegged to the euro, low inflation and healthy public finances.
The World Bank provided a €20.7mn loan to sup- port Kosovo’s digital infrastructure and digital economy project. Currently, only a limited number of households, businesses, and institutions in Ko- sovo have access to high-speed broadband.
Macedonia’s consumer price index rose by 1.4% y/y in June, slowing down from a 1.7% y/y in- crease a month before, the statistics agency said. Annual inflation decelerated as food prices rose at a slower pace than previously.
The strengthening of Moldova’s currency has helped stabilise inflation in the Southeast Euro- pean country, which neared 8% y/y last October. Headline inflation in Moldova accelerated only slightly to 3.2% y/y in June from 2.8% y/y in May.
Eleven companies are interested in the priva- tisation of Serbian mining giant RTB Bor. They include several companies from China.
UK investment fund Rohatyn Group took over Romanian pet shop chain Animax, reportedly paying €20mn to Cristian Ludovic Pop, the entrepreneur who developed Animax over the last 15 years. Its 80 shops compete against small independents as there is no major rival chain on the market.
Montenegro’s parliament voted to dismiss anti-corruption activist Vanja Calovic-Markovic from the council of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption. Critics say the highly controversial decision was politicised and suggest was intended as retribution against Markovic for her NGO's exposés concerning President Milo Djukanovic and his family.