SETimes.comMajority of Montenegro's seasonal workers from region
01/08/2012
The tiny country issued 12,500 seasonal work permits. Also in business news: Serbia will get $400m in budget support from the World Bank.
Serbs, Bosnians and Macedonians account for the biggest share of foreign seasonal workers in Montenegro, Vukica Jelic, head of the Podgorica-based Employment Agency, announced on Monday (July 30th). According to her, this summer the country has issued a total of 12,500 permits to foreign workers.
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Montenegro has the most expensive housing credits in Europe, Croatian internet portal Business reported on Monday (July 30th). Mortgage interests in Montenegro stand at an average of 9.2% vs 8.3% in Serbia, 7.2% in Croatia and 8.2% in Slovenia.
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The Greek Finance Ministry sent a request to the Swiss government on Monday (July 30th) to resume a previous agreement that taxes Greek bank account holders. The move came amid data showing significant outflow of capital from the crisis-hit country to accounts abroad.
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Serbia is hoping for $400m in direct budget support from the World Bank, Finance and Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic announced after meeting with representatives of the international financial institution in Belgrade Monday (July 30th). If granted, the money will be used to safeguard the economy until the new government drafts measures to fight the economic crisis.
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Albania's Central Bank on Wednesday (July 25th) cut its key repo rate to 4%, a record-low level. The measure aims to boost economic activity amid low inflation in the country.
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Republika Srpska's Energy Ministry announced on Friday (July 27th) that it has chosen RWE Innogy, a unit of German utility company RWE, to build four hydropower plants on the Drina River. The company beat out two other candidates for the job -- Greek state-controlled PPC and China's International Water and Electric Corp.
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Greece's Piraeus Bank will acquire part of crisis-hit state-controlled ATEBank, the Bank of Greece announced on Friday (July 27th). ATEBank, which has a network of nearly 500 branches, will be divided into performing and non-performing assets.
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The Romanian currency received a boost Monday (July 30th) after President Traian Basescu survived a referendum on his impeachment, which was invalidated by low turnout. The leu jumped from its record low of 4.6509 per euro registered on July 24th, to 4.5572 euros.
(Various sources -- 25/07/12-01/08/12)