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Poland: Nuclear Power Plant Project Wobbles

Poland´s Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski explained that Poland cannot afford the nuclear power plant.

February 23, 2013

Ukrainian Banking Sector Recovers

According to Raiffeisen Research, the important of foreign banks in the Ukraine is decreasing. Due a decrease in provisions, the profitability of the banking sector goes up.

February 21, 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

Necas Supports Turkish EU Membership

On the occasion of Prime Minister Erdogan´s visit in Prague, his Czech counterpart Necas assured to support Turkey´s candidacy.

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

Deripaska Increases Stake in Strabag

The Russian industrialist Oleg Deripaska buys 0.6% of Strabag shares. In total, he holds a stake of 18.2%.

January 18, 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

“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

Significant Upward Trend in Austrian Tourism Sector

Positive start in winter season 2012/13: 4.15 million overnights in November. The number of guests from Italy and Russia is growing remarkably.

January 4, 2013

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

Ponta to Remain as Prime Minister

Despite heavy dispute with Ponta, Romania´s President Traian Basescu announced to swear him as Prime Minister. Basescu has no other choice.

December 17, 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

RHI: 2012 Will be Successful

The Austrian refractory company will record a substantial increase in revenues and earnings, CEO Struzl says. However, results of the fourth quarter are expected to slacken.

November 30, 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

AUA to Strengthen CEE Network

After Air Berlin decided to reduce the number of flights from Vienna to Eastern European destinations, Austrian Airlines intends to fill the gap.

November 20, 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