SLOVENIA
Household disposable income up again in 2017
Disposable income of Slovenian households rose for the fourth consecutive year in 2017, adding 4.5% to EUR 11,248 per capita, data from the Statistics Office show.
Source: STA, Ilirika
Slovenia's largest dairy boosting exports
Ljubljanske Mlekarne, Slovenia's largest dairy, saw a 13% increase in sales revenue last year as exports surged by 40%. Due to higher buy-in prices, operating profit was only slightly above the 2016 figure.
Source: STA
C-bank: Private consumption low despite favourable trends
Private consumption has not picked up despite very favourable trends in the Slovenian labour market, as growth and exports remain robust, the central bank says in its latest monthly bulletin.
Source: STA
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Dow falls more than 100 points as Bank of America leads financial shares lower; European markets close lower; Ryanair gains 4%
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed lower on Monday as shares of big banks fell broadly. Worries about a deluge of corporate earnings reports coming this week and rising geopolitical tensions also dampened investor sentiment. The 30-stock Dow fell 126.93 points to 25,317.41, led by losses in Goldman Sachs. The S&P 500 pulled back 0.4 percent to 2,755.88 as the financials sector dropped 2.1 percent. The Nasdaq Composite, however, gained 0.3 percent to close at 7,468.36 as Amazon and Apple rose 1.4 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. Halliburton and offroad vehicle maker Polaris Industries both reported better-than-expected earnings before the bell Monday. Kimberly-Clark also posted a stronger-than-forecast profit. Several other companies are scheduled to report earnings this week, including Dow members 3M, McDonald's, Caterpillar and United Technologies. Amazon and Alphabet are also set to report this week. Shares in Europe see-sawed on Monday as investors focused on earnings and digested news surrounding Italy. The pan-European Stoxx 600 initially rose with most sectors trading in positive territory. However those gains were given up after Italy vowed to stick to the draft budget. The pan-European index ended provisionally lower by 0.32 percent. Fiat was among the top performers, up more than 2.98 percent by the end of trade. This followed news that the company had agreed to sell its Magneti Marelli unit to a Japanese company for $7.1 billion, Reuters reported. At the other end was Philips, the stock was down 8.69 percent, after missing analysts' expectations with its third-quarter results. Market focus was mostly on corporate earnings with several big stocks announcing their latest results. Shares of Ryanair rose more than 4 percent despite reporting lower-than-expected profits in the second quarter of its fiscal year. The airline also announced significant progress with employees to prevent further strikes and investments to ensure on-time departures.
Source: CNBC
SERBIA
Serbian can connect to Turkish Stream
Serbia can connect to the pipeline leading all the way to Turkey under the Black Sea, the CEO of Gazprom told Vecernje Novosti daily. Turkish Stream project entails the construction of two branches of the pipeline connecting Russia and Turkey under the Black Sea, he said and added that the first branch is meant for delivery of gas to Turkish market.
Source: Ekapija
Serbia's c-bank launches instant payment system
Serbia's central bank said on Monday it launched an instant payment system to facilitate money transfers in the country. The system will work 24/7, allowing transfers of up to 300,000 dinars ($2,900/2,500 euro) per transaction within just a few seconds, the central bank, which will operate the system, said in a statement. Customers will be able to carry out payment transactions via counters, mobile and electronic banking applications, as well as at the points of sale at retailers, the central bank said.
Source: SeeNews
No additional changes to Labor Law until 2020, we are not insinuating false sick leave claims
The amendments to Labor Law that would also define the additional changes concerning sick days will not be considered until 2020, said the Minister of Labor Zoran Djordjevic. There is no need for further changes. We are not insinuating that the claims for sick days are false, Djordjevic told Prva TV commenting on the media claims that the CCIS was preparing amendments to the Labor Law which would employ stricter measures of control for sick leave.
Source: Ekapija
