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Austria and Russia - Latest cross-border activities between Austria and Russia and the 9 members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)


OMV and Repsol Searching for Oil in Romania.

Petrom, the Romanian subsidiary of OMV and the Spanish Repsol Group have agreed on a joint venture in Romania. Investments estimated at approximately EUR 50 mn in the next two years.
February 23, 2013


CESEE Region Still Has Enormous Growth Potential

“CEE growth drivers intact but innovation is needed to start convergence 2.0” Erste Group says.
February 20, 2013


CESEE: Stress of Competition is Growing

CEE significantly more industrialized than euro area (30% vs. 19%) but still needs to catch up in terms of competitiveness.
February 20, 2013


Sberbank Threatens to Sue VBAG

Last year, VBAG has sold VBI (Volksbank International) to Russian Sberbank. Now, Sberbank is highly dissatisfied with the performance of VBI.
February 19, 2013


Turkey Plans to Build First Nuclear Power Plant

In order to become energy autonomous, the country wants to put a nuclear power plant into operation in six years.
February 16, 2013


EU Foreign Trade with Russia and Turkey Growing Strongly

Last year, the EU has achieved a trade surplus of € 105bn. The trade surplus with Turkey was up by € 25bn. Exports to Russia were up by 15%.
February 15, 2013


Russia: Consumer Loans Growing Substantially

At the moment, the market for consumer loans is growing by 40%. The household indebtedness is still relatively low.
February 13, 2013


Russia Makes Oil to Gold

In the last decade, Russia´s government has transformed the oil exports into gold reserves. No other country has bought more gold in the last years.
February 12, 2013


CESEE Office Market Shows Solid Fundamentals

CESEE office market is undergoing a stable development; rental levels remain largely solid in most of the region, Erste Group says.
February 11, 2013


Russia: National Bank Under Pressure

Russia´s National Bank faces a growing inflation rate. At the same time, the economic growth flattens.
February 9, 2013


CESEE: Economic Outook Brightens Slightly

According to a survey carried out by OeKB (Austrian Clearing Bank), investors in the CESEE region are more optimistic.
February 6, 2013


Erdogan Considers Joining „Shanghai Five“

Turkey´s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan increases the pressure on the EU. He considers a political re-orientation towards the east.
February 1, 2013


“Operations of Austrian Banks in CESEE Region Are a Success Story“

Regarding the Austrian banking sector, governor of OeNB (Austrian Central Bank) Ewald Nowotny demonstrates cautious optimism.
January 30, 2013


EU FDI Stocks: Russia Ranks Fifth

Foreign Direct Investment EU27 investment stocks in the rest of the world increased by 50% between 2008 and 2011.
January 22, 2013


Nabucco: Decision Will Be Announced by Mid-2013

The Shah Deniz II consortium will announce its decision on the pipeline project in June, Nabucco´s CEO Reinhard Mitschek says.
January 21, 2013


CESEE Property Market Highly Heterogeneous

In Austria, the yield is expected to shrink further. However, the investments will be stable, CBRE Austria says. In the CESEE region, the situation is ambiguous.
January 21, 2013


Russian Rosatom May Build Nuclear Power Plant in Bohunice

Because of the completion of the Czech nuclear power plants, the Czech energy company CEZ is expected to withdraw from the construction project.
January 19, 2013


Serbia: Dinkic Underlines Importance of South Stream Pipeline

The South Stream pipeline is a “national project” and of vital interest for Serbia, Minister of Economics Mladjan Dinkic says.
January 19, 2013


Croatia Finds Compromise with Gazprom

Croatia will be connected with the South Stream pipeline. The construction costs will total € 60m.
January 17, 2013


Stepic: „CESEE Region Faces Challenging Year“

RBI´s (Raiffeisen Bank International) CEO Herbert Stepic explained that central, eastern and southeastern Europe is still Europe´s growth engine.
January 15, 2013


CEE Banking Study 2013: “Banks Rebalance Their Business Models” (2)

Total assets and lending have grown steadily since 2008, even though at a slower pace than before the crisis and with a stronger focus on domestic funding sources.
January 15, 2013


First Signs of Economic Recovery

Liquidity is driving the markets, global monetary policy remains heavily expansive. Muted growth outlook for CEE.
January 10, 2013


Serbia to Sign Loan Agreement with Russia

Tomorrow, Serbia´s Minister of Finance Mladjan Dinkic will visit Moscow.
January 10, 2013


Central Europe's Relations With the U.S.

Philip H. Gordon from the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S.-Central Europe Strategy Forum, Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, DC remarks on the issue of U.S. relations with Central- and Eastern Europe as follows.
January 9, 2013


“2013 will be a better growth year for CEE than 2012”

Unlike 2012 the new year starts with much less financial stress and easier monetary policy. Central and Eastern Europe has still considerable potential to outperform EMU, differentiating on domestic policies, Bank Austria says.
January 7, 2013


CESEE: Economy Slows Down Further

CEE macro downturn to hit trough in Q1 2013; forecast GDP growth 2013: Poland 2.2%, Slovakia 1.3%, Romania 1.1%, Erste Group says.
January 7, 2013


CESEE Equity Market: Upside Trend after Slow Start

Country allocation: An overweight on Russia is a strong bet for the coming quarter and mostly based on liquidity searching for an option after Turkey performing so strongly, Erste Group says.
January 7, 2013


Petrom: Major Gas Deal Signed

OMV Petrom exploring shallow water sector of Neptun block in the Black Sea.
December 22, 2012


CESEE: Deposit Growth Slows Down

Given the sketched regional loan growth dynamics and their most important drivers it comes as no surprise that deposit growth rates in CEE also decelerated in recent months, Raiffeisen Research states.
December 21, 2012


CESEE Asset Quality: “Not out of the woods”

In terms of asset quality the banking sector trends in CEE remain a mixed bag, Raiffeisen Research says.
December 20, 2012


CESEE Banking Sector: Improving Market sentiment, but Slower Growth

The average CEE loan growth slowed to16-17% yoy in Q3 from 19% in Q1/Q2, Raiffeisen Research says.
December 20, 2012


Russia´s Budget Deficit Higher than Expected

This year, Russia will record a budget deficit of 0.25% of GDP.
December 20, 2012


EU: Exports to Russia Decline

EU27 deficit in trade of goods with Russia down to 65 bn euro in the first nine months of 2012.
December 19, 2012


EVN to Enlarge Renewable Energy Production and Expand into Russia

The Vienna-listed energy producer wants to change its energy production portfolio. The hydro power, wind power and solar power production will be enlarged.
December 17, 2012


CA Immo: Gazprom New Tenant

ZAO AVIELEN A.G., a joint venture of the Austrian real estate companies Warimpex, CA Immo and UBM, is renting two thirds of its office space at AirportCity St. Petersburg to Gazprom Invest Zapad, a subsidiary of OAO Gazprom.
December 13, 2012


South Stream: No Pipelines to Austria

Austria will not be connected to the Russian pipeline project. Neither OMV nor Gazprom make a comment.
December 12, 2012


Russia Starts South Stream Pipeline

Today, the Russian gas group Gazprom has officially begun the construction works of the pipeline project.
December 7, 2012


Bulgaria Puts Pressure on Nabucco

Bulgaria wants the Nabucco project to start as soon as possible.
December 5, 2012


Sberbank Intensifies its Relations with Turkey

In future, the Sberbank of Russia is to step up its activities in Turkey and on December 3, 2012 signed two landmark agreements to this end.
December 5, 2012


RHI: USA and India as Growth Markets

CEO Franz Struzl considers expanding into India, Russia and the U.S. Investments will reach about € 50m.
December 1, 2012


CESEE: Russia Has Best Growth Prospects

Next year, Russia is expected to record a GDP growth rate of 3.8%, Vienna Institute of International Economic Studies (wiiw) says.
November 26, 2012


“Austria is a committed partner in the security field”

Austrian Foreign Ministry: New security threats and regional conflicts discussed with Russian National Security Advisor.
November 16, 2012


South Stream Pipeline: Construction Works to Begin in December

The pipeline projects of Russia´s gas group Gazprom makes substantial progress. Europe´s dependence on Russia is growing further.
November 12, 2012


VBI Is Now Called Sberbank Europe AG

VBI (Volksbank International), the former Eastern European division of Austrian VBAG was renamed to Sberbank Europe.
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


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


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


Purchasing Power: Austria Ranks 6

Regarding the purchasing power per head, Austria is significantly above the European average of € 12,802.
October 31, 2012


„Strengthening Relation with Russia“

Christoph Leitl, President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO) argues that Europe must co-operate closer with Russia in order to manage the crisis.
October 25, 2012


Rewe Austria to Expand in Russia

Rewe Austria intends to open ten new stores in Russia per year. Besides Russia, the Ukraine and Romania are main target markets.
October 22, 2012