SETimes.comCyprus looks again to Russia for bailout
11/07/2012
Hit hard by the Greek crisis, Cyprus seeks more relief. In other business news: Bulgaria sells nearly 1 billion euros worth of government bonds and the IMF worries about Serbia's level of public debt.
Cyprus has asked Russia for financial aid in the amount of 5 billion euros, Russian Economy Minister Anton Siluanov told RBC daily on Friday (July 6th). Cyprus, which has also sought bailout funds from the EU, already received 2.5 billion euros from Russia in December of last year.
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Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia have seen a significant drop in GDP, by more than 1%, since the start of this year, the European Commission said in its latest quarterly report on the Western Balkans, quoted by Deutsche Welle on Tuesday (July 10th). At the same time, however, inflation has also slowed. The Commission expects recession in Croatia and a negative economic growth of 1.2% this year. Macedonia's economy is expected to expand by 1.7%; Montenegro's by 0.4%, and Serbia's by 0.3%.
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Turkey, Macedonia and Albania are the only countries in the region present in this year's Global Retail Development Index, compiled by the consulting company AT Kearney. Turkey stands at 13th, while Macedonia and Albania are at 21st and 25th respectively. The ranking includes the world's top 30 developing countries for global retail expansion.
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Albania's economy contracted by 0.2% on an annual basis in the first quarter of this year, data from the National Institute of Statistics showed on Monday (July 9th). Compared to the last quarter of 2011, the contraction is by 1.2%. Local experts believe the drop is due to the eurozone crisis and poor weather conditions during the period.
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Romania and Croatia held a business forum in Bucharest on July 3rd, attended by visiting Croatian President Ivo Josipovic. Participants in the event stressed the need to utilise untapped business potential, noting that the current trade exchange of just 270m euros is far from capacity.
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Serbia's Naftna Industrija Srbije AD (NIS), which is owned by the Russian group Gazprom Neft, intends to open 40 new petrol stations in Romania and another 40 in Bulgaria by the end of this year, NIS's CEO Kirill Kravchenko announced on July 3rd. He said that the company will invest 500m euros annually over the next three years.
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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Turkey reached $15.9 billion in 2011, the World Investment Report issued by the UN Conference on Trade and Development indicated on Thursday (July 5th). This represents a 75.7% hike versus 2010, Ozlem Ozyigit of the International Investors Association of Turkey pointed out.
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Bulgaria has successfully sold five-year government bonds worth 950m euros at an interest rate of under 5%, the finance ministry announced on July 3rd. The bonds cost the Bulgarian treasury an interest yield of 4.25%, which is lower than the 7.5% of an issue maturing in January 2013.
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A delegation of Indian businessmen is visiting Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Albania this week to promote business ties and study the potential for economic co-operation. The ten-member group is particularly interested in the fields of IT, steel, mining and oil.
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Serbia's public debt is at a "very worrying" level, IMF resident representative Bogdan Lissovolik warned in an interview with the Belgrade-based daily Politika on Tuesday (July 10th). The country's public debt currently is well above 45% of GDP. Economic research has shown that developing countries with debt levels of between 40 and 45% come close to dangerous indebtedness levels.
(Various sources – 03/07/12 - 10/07/12)