Thursday, 5 January 2012The EU decided on Friday (December 30th) to renew trade preferences for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo until 2015. The preferences, which expired at the end of December 2010, will allow duty-free access of nearly all products from the region to the bloc. All exporters will be able to claim compensation for the duties they paid in 2011.
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Greeks ushered in the New Year with new higher electricity prices as the state-controlled electricity company PPC increased rates by 9.2%. The hike was lower than the 17% the company had requested and the 12.7% the country's energy regulator had recommended in order to bring prices into line with the true cost of energy under the EU/IMF bailout terms.
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Turkey gave Russia a green light to start the building of the South Stream gas pipeline under the Black Sea, Gazprom announced on December 28th. South Stream, which is due to become operational in 2015, will bring up to 63b cubic metres of Russian gas annually to Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria and Italy in one leg, and to Croatia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey in a second one.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina's parliament passed the state budget for 2011 in an emergency procedure on Saturday (December 31st), shortly after the three main leaders in the country agreed on forming a state-level government. Without the move, all payments to state institutions would have stalled on January 1st. The budget was set at 500m euros.
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Romania will increase mining royalties for gold and other precious metals from 4 to 8%, the government announced on December 28th. The measure, along with a previous hike in royalties for silver and platinum, is expected to bring an additional 65m euros to the state budget this year.
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Telecom giant Deutsche Telecom reached a settlement with US authorities last week on charges of paying more than $95m in bribes to government officials in Macedonia and Montenegro. The accusations against the company and its Hungarian subsidiary Magyar Telekom had to do with illegal payments made in 2005 and 2006 to secure favourable contracts in Montenegro, and to keep rivals out of the market in Macedonia.
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Kosovo ended 2011 with economic growth of 5.3% compared to 3.9% in 2010, Economic Development Minister Besim Beqai announced on Friday (December 30th). He noted the figure is higher than previous estimates, and slightly below the IMF's projections of 5.5%.
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Serbia and Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom have reached an agreement to lower the price for natural gas deliveries to the Balkan state by 12%, Srbijagas announced on December 27th. Under the deal, due to be signed in March, Belgrade will be paying $478 instead of $545 per 1,000 cubic metres of natural gas until the two sides agree on a new long-term contract.
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Turkey registered a record increase in exports in 2011, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said on Monday (January 2nd.) According to him, exports last year rose by 18.2% reaching the historic high of $134.6 billion. |
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Setimes
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