Features
Armenians remain optimistic about the future and pleased with their government, poll shows
Results of a poll by the International Republican Institute indicate a strong popular mandate for the new government to press on with reforms.
Ukraine’s balance of payments to support the hryvnia, despite growing trade deficit
A positive balance of payments will support the value of Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, largely thanks to $5bn worth of remittances sent home by Ukrainians working abroad, despite the swelling trade deficit.
Russian companies scramble to improve their ESG scores or face losing investors
"Environmental, social and governance" performance is becoming a hot topic amongst leading Russian companies and a way to reduce their "Russia risk" discount.
Central, Eastern and Southeast European sovereigns to return to debt markets on large scale in 2020, Raiffeisen says
Governments of Central and Southeast Europe have already secured most of the funding they need for this year, but with more obligations maturing in 2020 they are expected to return to the markets on a large scale next year
Rainbow flag flies over CEE, but attitudes to LGBT vary vastly
North Macedonia held its first ever gay pride march on June 29 with up to 1,000 people attending the event. There were pride marches in nearly all the CEE countries but the experience in each country is vastly different.
TANAP pipeline comes online, a major piece in Europe’s energy puzzle
Completion of the TANAP pipeline brings completion of the Southern Gas Corridor that will diversify Europe’s gas supplies away from Russia closer to reality — at a time when Russia is building its own new pipeline infrastructure.
Erdogan’s police use rubber bullets against Istanbul Pride attempt as usual
Turkish LGBT activist defied a ban on the Istanbul Pride march but riot police fired rubber bullets and teargas at the crowd in an attempt to break up the gathering.
Ukraine’s banks continue to make progress and profits, but slowly
In May Ukraine's banking sector’s profit was up again to a cumulative $876mn over the first five months of this year. The sector continues to recover, but slowly.
Ukraine's trade regime remains unbalanced, but other income covers the shortfall
Poland overtook Russia to become Ukraine’s biggest trade partner in May and maintained its lead in April. Ukraine continues to run a sizable trade deficit but thanks to $10bn of remittances a year it has a current account surplus.
Russia Towers 10 years in business, getting ready for 5G
5G is coming to Russia soon and it will transform the telecoms business, says Russia Towers that has been working on the market for a decade building the infrastructure the mobile phone business runs on
Russia’s Ministry of Finance places a record number of OFZ bonds in 2Q19
Russia’s Ministry of Finance has placed a record number of ruble-denominated OFZ treasury bills in the second quarter of this year and is ahead of its borrowing target for the whole year.
Russia's dividend season open and investors prepared for record payouts
The percentage of profits that companies are sharing with their shareholders is at an all time high both in terms of the dividend yield and the amount of cash they are handing over.
Belarus' deadline to join Clearstream missed as agreement delayed
Minsk hopes to open the local market to foreign investors but there have been problems linking Belarus' depository system to the international system, Finance Minister Maksim Yermolovich tells bne IntelliNews.
VOX: The nationalisation of PrivatBank
The independence of the National Bank of Ukraine is under attack says its former governor Valaria Gontareva, who was responsible for carrying out sweeping reforms and nationalising PrivatBank.
Belarus' Plan B to avoid economic crisis
The IMF warned Minsk last November that it better have a “Plan B” ready if it could not persuade Moscow to pay it compensation for a change in the way oil exports are taxed. It's got one.