SETimes.comTurkey's unemployment lowest in 11 years
19/09/2012
The number of registered workers in Turkey went up to 24.76 million in June. Also in business news: the region ranks high in brain drain and Macedonia's economy has entered a recession.
Unemployment in Turkey went down to its lowest level in 11 years in June, official data from the statistics institute TurkStat showed on Monday (September 17th). During the month, unemployment stood at 8 percent on an unadjusted basis down 1.2 percentage points year-on-year. A total of 676,000 new jobs were created, bringing the total number of registered workers up to 24.76 million.
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Albania's Finance Ministry announced on Monday (September 17th) that the Austrian Lottery has won the tender for a 10-year concession of the country's National Lottery. The Austrian company offered the best price of 3 million euros and best conditions for managing the games, the ministry said.
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Balkan countries are ranking high in the world when it comes to educated youth leaving the country for jobs elsewhere, according to the recently published World Economic Forum Competitiveness report. The list includes 144 countries, with the ones at the bottom being the ones with the highest level of brain drain. Bosnia and Herzegovina is at 140th, Serbia is at 139th, while Macedonia is at 133th. Romania is close at 131th, followed by Croatia at 128th, Bulgaria at 127th, Greece at 119th, Albania at 96th and Montenegro at 60th.
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Greek hospitals and courts were paralysed by a strike Monday (September 17th) as employees protested the latest plans of austerity measures. Courts will only hear urgent cases in the next two weeks, while doctors in state hospitals launched an indefinite protest during which they will only treat patients in urgent need of help. Meanwhile, trade unions have called a general 24-hour strike for September 26th.
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The IMF announced on Friday (September 14th) that Serbia has asked for a fresh loan programme seven months after freezing a 1 billion-euro standby arrangement due to failure to stick to previously agreed fiscal targets. No details of the request have been revealed. In its report, the Fund predicted Serbia's GDP would contract by 0.5 percent this year and recover modestly in 2013.
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Bulgaria tops the EU's list in terms of workers and companies involved in the shadow economy, the World Bank said in a report published last week. The document titled "In from the Shadow: Integrating Europe's Informal Labour," states shadow economy in the country accounts for 33 percent of GDP, followed by Romania with 29 percent.
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Croatia's state-owned natural gas pipeline operator and its Polish counterpart signed a co-operation agreement in Zagreb on Thursday (September 13th) to connect their liquified natural gas terminals. The two companies will implement a 1.1 billion-euro project on the island of Krk in the Adriatic Sea, which will include an LNG terminal and a gas thermal electric plant. The project is expected to be complete by 2017.
(Various sources -- 12/09/12-19/09/12)