Eastern European Countries and Austria | Bilateral Relations

Austria and Eastern European countries - Latest headlines about bilateral relations in the areas of economy, business, diplomacy, culture and tourism

Slovakia: Foreign Trade Growing Moderately

Positive foreign trade development in September and over the first nine months of 2012.

November 10, 2012

Slovak Industrial Production Grows Substantially

The Slovak Industrial production index (IPI) increased by 13 % in September 2012, compared with September 2011.

November 10, 2012

Czech Republic to Enlarge Nuclear Energy Production

Until 2014, the Czech Republic wants to double the share of nuclear energy production. The Temelin and Dukovany nuclear power plants will be enlarged.

November 9, 2012

Slovenia and Austria to Deepen Co-Operation

The Slovenian Minister of Economics Radovan Zerjav and the President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce Christoph Leitl want to intensifiy the economic co-operation.

November 8, 2012

New Record for Bilateral Trade Between Poland and Austria

Christoph Leitl, President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce underlines the close and friendly relationships between Poland and Austria.

November 8, 2012

Hungary´s Budget Deficit Below 3.0%

The EU Commission estimates that Hungary´s budget deficit will comply with the Maastricht Criteria in 2012 and 2013. However, the deficit may exceed the 3.0% threshold in 2014.

November 8, 2012

Polish National Bank Cuts Interest Rate

In order to support economic growth, NBP decided to ease its monetary policy.

November 8, 2012

Romanian Postmaster Fully Owned by Austrian Post

Austrian Post has acquired the remaining 74% shareholding in the Romanian company Postmaster s.r.l. which is the leading alternative postal services provider in Romania.

November 8, 2012

Slovak Bond Yields at Record Low

Erste Group successfully placed € 1.25 bn 12-year benchmark Slovak government Eurobond at record low yield of 3.375%. New issue amassed € 2.1 bn order book across 140 investors.

November 8, 2012

CEE Deleveraging Remains Moderate

Austrian, German and Italian banks kept lending to CEE6 (except Hungary) relatively stable. Shifts in foreign capital structure and allocation from private to public sector might pose risks to future growth.

November 8, 2012

Latvia Has Best Growth Prospects

Today, the EU Commission has announced its economic forecast for 2012. Austria is among the economically stable countries.

November 8, 2012

Positive Business Outlook in Ukraine

Results of the Business Outlook Survey in Q3 2012: Unlike managers in Western Europe, Ukrainian managers give a positive assessment of the business activity in the near future.

November 7, 2012

Erste Group Supports Romanian BCR

The Austrian bank Erste Group injects € 111m in Romanian BCR.

November 7, 2012

Slovakia: Internal Trade Growing Moderately

The Slovakian retail trade sector is shrinking. The wholesale turnover was up by 2.2%

November 7, 2012

CESEE: Business Climate Deteriorates

According to OeKB (Austrian Clearing Bank), the economic sentiment in Southeastern Europe is declining. Poland remains the growth engine.

November 7, 2012

Slovenia: Creation of Bad Bank Should Solve Credit Crunch

At the moment, the Slovenian banking sector does not fulfill its main task. The real industry suffers from a credit crunch.

November 6, 2012

Future of Czech Government Uncertain

Although Prime Minister Petr Necas was confirmed as party leader of the governing ODS, the government is still threatened to collapse.

November 6, 2012

Consumer Confidence Declining

In Hungary and Bulgaria, the economic sentiment is declining.

November 6, 2012

Poland: Lending Criteria to Tighten

According to the Polish National Bank (NBP), banks will tighten lending conditions further. NBP wants to support economic growth, but has to prevent a credit bubble.

November 6, 2012

Czech Industrial Production Shrinks

In September 2012 industrial production decreased at constant prices by 7.1%, y-o-y. Working days adjusted (WDA) industrial production decreased by 2.4%.

November 6, 2012

Hypo Group Starts Selling Business in SEE

The nationalized Austrian banking group has to downsize drastically. Today, Hypo Group started to put the subsidiaries in Southeastern Europe for sale.

November 6, 2012

Czech Construction Industry Affected by Recession

In September 2012 the construction output decreased by 10.6%, year-on-year (y-o-y), in real terms.

November 6, 2012

Czech Exports Stagnate

In September 2012, according to preliminary data of ‘border statistics’, current price exports rose by 0.6%, while imports fell by 3.3%, year-on-year (y-o-y).

November 6, 2012

Croatia Does not Participate in South Stream Pipeline

The Russian gas pipeline South Stream will not run across Croatia. Initially, Croatia was viewed as transit country.

November 5, 2012

Romania: Joining Eurozone is „Not for Sure”

Romania´s Prime Minister Victor Ponta expressed his concerns about introducing the euro in Romania.

November 5, 2012

Hungary: New Threats for Banks

The Hungarian government plans to take over debts from small municipalities. Banks fear that the Hungarian state demands a debt relief.

November 5, 2012

Hungary: Decrease in Home Construction

In the first nine months of 2012, 6509 new dwellings were built, 20 percent fewer than a year ago.

November 5, 2012

Moody´s Downgrades Austrian VBAG

The U.S. rating agency underlines that the Austrian state will help the financially stricken bank further.

November 3, 2012

Czech Unemployment Growing Slightly

In October, the Czech unemployment quota was up by 0.4 percentage points compared to the reference period of 2011.

November 3, 2012

South Stream Pipeline: Gazprom Concludes Contract with Hungary

The Russian energy group Gazprom has negotiated the last conditions of the contract with Serbia and Hungary.

November 2, 2012

Czech Republic to Stagnate

The economic outlook for the Czech Republic had to be revised again. After a significant recession in 2012, the Czech GDP will only grow by 0.2% next year.

November 2, 2012

Rostowski: Poland´s Economic Slowdown “Only Temporary”

Regarding the medium-term economic development, the Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski proves confidence.

November 2, 2012

Bulgaria´s Growth Rate to Reach 1.0% in 2012

Bulgaria´s economy performs worse than expected. Next year, economic growth will recover.

November 2, 2012

CNB: Interest Rate at Historical Low

Today, the Czech National Bank (CNB) decided to cut the interest rate to 0.05%. Now, foreign exchange interventions are the only tool for CNB.

November 2, 2012

Czech Household Debt on the Rise

Against 2011, Czech household debt was up by 4.2%. At the end of September, the level of debt of Czech households to banks reached € 45.8bn.

October 31, 2012

Hungary: Export volume grew by 1.7% in August

In August, the export volume grew by 1.7% and the import volume decreased by 0.3% compared to the base level. The exports of machinery and transport equipment decreased by 3.2%.

October 31, 2012

Hungary Cuts Interest Rates Again

The Council of Hungarian National Bank, which is dominated by representatives of the Hungarian government decided to cut the base rate from 6.50% to 6.25%.

October 31, 2012

Lithuania´s Government Aims to Join Eurozone

The social democrat Algirdas Butkevicius may become Lithuania´s next Prime Minister. His main targets are austerity and the accession to the Eurozone.

October 31, 2012

Unemployment: Austria Ranks First in EU

In September, the euro area unemployment rate came at 11.6%. The Baltic countries registered a substantial decrease in unemployment.

October 31, 2012

EU Budget Cuts would Affect Poland

In the last six years, Poland benefitted substantially from EU funds. A cut of € 23bn is being discussed.

October 30, 2012

Hungary: Employment on the Rise

80 thousand more people in work in the third quarter than a year ago.

October 30, 2012

Czech Republic and Slovakia: Nuclear Power Remains Main Energy Source

The Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico underline that nuclear energy will remain the future technology.

October 30, 2012

„Banking Union Weakens Central Banks“

The Czech President Vaclav Klaus criticizes that a common banking supervision limits the competencies of national central banks.

October 30, 2012

Telekom Austria´s Vipnet Invests in Croatia

Telekom Austria´s Croatian subsidiary Vipnet Acquires 10 MHz of 800 MHz Spectrum for approximately € 20m in Croatia.

October 30, 2012

Romanian Economy to Shrink Further

With a large negative contribution expected to come from agriculture, real GDP should decline again in Q3 in quarterly terms (as well in annual terms). The contraction is likely to be larger than initially expected, Raiffeisen Zentralbank forecasts.

October 30, 2012

CA Immo Secures Major Project in Romania

Lease agreements have been extended for over 14,000 sqm in two Bucharest office buildings. International anchor tenants are ensuring an almost 100 % occupancy rate in the CA Immo Romanian portfolio.

October 30, 2012

Poland: Real Wages are Falling

Due to the persistently high inflation rate, real wages have fallen for the first time in 20 years.

October 29, 2012

Donau Chemie Starts Expansion in Hungary

The Austrian chemical group invests € 6.5m in a new factory in Eastern Hungary.

October 29, 2012

Saving in CEE Becomes More Important

Poles and Slovaks are CEE's savings champions, putting aside 15% resp. 12% of their monthly income. Austrians, Germans and Czechs follow suit with 9%.

October 29, 2012

Austrian-Ukrainian Trade Relations Show Development Potential

According to Richard Schenz, Vice President of WKO (Austrian Chamber of Commerce), the economic relations between Austria and the Ukraine are excellent.

October 25, 2012