SLOVENIA
Bertoncelj: Structural reforms key for Slovenia
Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj believes Slovenia should set itself ambitious goals and try to achieve them, but ""our key task are reforms"", he said as he addressed a two-day financial conference which opened in Portorož on Tuesday.
Source: STA
Brussels keeps Slovenia growth forecast unchanged
The European Commission has kept the growth outlook for Slovenia in its spring economic forecast unchanged at 3.1% for this year and 2.8% for 2020, both of which are way above EU and eurozone average.
Source: STA
Jobless total drops by 3.4% to under 74,000 in April
The positive trend on Slovenia's labour market continued in April, as the jobless total dropped by 5.8% year-on-year and by 3.4% over March to 73,965, the Employment Service said on Tuesday.
Source: STA
Bankers agree market consolidation will continue
The two-day Financial Conference started in Portorož on Tuesday with representatives of the banking industry sharing the view that there are too many banks in Slovenia and that consolidation of the market will continue.
Source: STA
Elan's sale to Finnish fund KJK completed
The sale of the Slovenian-based sports equipment maker Elan to the Finnish-owned KJK fund has been completed, the company based in Begunje na Gorenjskem announced on Tuesday. The new owners say Elan will play a central role in KJK's plans to form a group of sports equipment makers.
Source: STA
Unicredit Banka Slovenije gets new CEO
The supervisors of Unicredit Banka Slovenija, part of the Italian banking group Unicredit, have confirmed the appointment of Marco Esposito as the bank's new CEO. Esposito is to succeed Stefan Vavti on 1 June or after approval from the ECB as the regulator.
Source: STA
INTERNATIONAL MAKRETS
China's Trade Shows Economic Recovery Tested by Global Slowdown
An unexpected fall in China’s exports and an equally unforeseen rise in imports show that the world’s second-largest economy continues a tentative recovery while global demand weakens and trade tensions re-escalate. Exports dropped 2.7 percent in April versus a forecast 3 percent increase, while imports expanded by 4 percent compared to a projected slip, the customs administration said Wednesday. Those misses highlight that the global slowdown is weighing down on China’s growth, instead of the other way around, at least for now. Months of policy stimulus has fueled a pickup in the Asian economy, although the re-escalating trade threats may throttle those green shoots. Tariff War Renewed? How U.S.-China Trade Talks Could Play Out “The lackluster exports show that the global economy probably hasn’t bottomed yet, while the imports signal recovering domestic demand,” said Peiqian Liu, Asia strategist at Natwest Markets PLC in Singapore. “The noise and uncertainties in the trade war will continue to weigh on China’s trade.” China’s shipments to the U.S., Japan and South Korea slumped from a year earlier last month, and those to the largest European economies also slowed from a surge in March. The trade surplus with the U.S. in the first four months of 2019 expanded 10.5 percent from the same period in 2018 to about 570 billion yuan ($84 billion), as trade flows both ways declined. While early data from Japan and the euro area show signs of stabilization, President Donald Trump’s abrupt Sunday announcements that he planned to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent is throwing that outlook back into uncertainty. He also threatened to impose duties ""shortly"" on all other goods not already tariffed. A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He will visit Washington for negotiations Thursday and Friday. In an all-out trade-war scenario, annual gross-domestic product may shrink by as much as 0.6 percent in the U.S. and by 1.5 percent in China, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Source: Bloomberg
European stocks today
European stocks are so far avoiding their Chinese peers' capitulation, as technology and miners top the Stoxx 600 leader board. Whether they will hold up all day will depend on the resilience of their counterparts across the Atlantic. European stocks are more prone to be driven by U.S. equity sentiment than China these days, and so far U.S. futures are slightly in the green. The DAX continues to shed its dud status, helped by a spate of strong earnings -- Siemens beat and announced plans for an IPO for its energy unit, and Wirecard boosted forecasts. European stocks aren't in the clear yet. Remember that they opened little changed yesterday, and ended down 1.4% as U.S. stocks slid.
Source: STA
Dow drops 470 points on growing trade-war threat, biggest decline since early January; Europe markets close lower as US-China trade tensions escalate
Stocks fell sharply on Tuesday after a top U.S. trade official indicated that higher tariffs on Chinese goods are coming later this week, disappointing traders who hoped President Donald Trump’s weekend tweet threat was just a negotiation tactic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 473.39 points, or 1.79%, to 25,965.09 after plunging as much as 648.77 points at its low of the day, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.65% to 2,884.05. It was the Dow’s biggest drop since January 3. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.96% to 7,963.76. All 30 of Dow components fell and all 11 S&P sectors traded lower in the broad sell-off. European stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday as investors monitored trade developments between the U.S and China. The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 was 1.5% lower at the closing bell, with most sectors and major bourses seeing heavy losses. Shares of BMW fell by around 4% after the German carmaker reported a 78% drop in first-quarter profits, hit by legal provisions and expenses. Meanwhile, the European Commission released its latest economic forecast. The Commission still expects growth in the whole EU to hit 1.4% this year and 1.6% next year. However, it cut growth forecasts for Germany for the second time this year, as trade tensions and a Chinese slowdown weigh on the traditional economic powerhouse of the region.
Source: CNBC
SERBIA
Three loan agreements on projects worth USD 142 million signed with World Bank
Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali met with Cyril Muller, the Vice President for the World Bank's Europe and Central Asia region, in Belgrade today (May 7), on which occasion three loan agreements on projects worth a total of USD 142 million were signed. Minister Mali signed agreements with Stephen Ndegwa, the World Bank Country Manager for Serbia, on the projects of upgrading the electronic government, modernizing the tax administration and improving commerce and transport in the Western Balkans by a applying multi-phase program approach.
Source: b92
Demand for cash loans rises, each Serbian citizen owes EUR 1,000 in average
Serbian citizens are currently repaying banking debts worth around EUR 7 billion, amounting to around EUR 1,000 per citizen, Politika newspapers wrote, citing the banking sources. The problem lies in the fact that retail cash loans currently amount to EUR 3.5 billion, equal to the mortgage debt. As the Belgrade office of the World Bank explains, cash loans are riskier, as they are not used for investments, but for spending.
Source: Serbiamonitor
EUR 930 million transferred from Serbia to offshore companies last year
Companies that operate in Serbia transferred last year a total of EUR 930 million from Serbia to offshore companies in various countries with most of the money ending up in Hong Kong (EUR 764 million), Singapore (EUR 67.3 million) and the British Virgin Islands (EUR 22 million). According to the National Bank of Serbia, millions of euros were simultaneously transferred to Panama (EUR 10 million), Liechtenstein and the Marshall Islands (EUR 9 million each), and the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Belize and Seychelles (EUR 3 million each).
Source: Serbianmonitor
