NovemberMay 27, 3, 20102009 This is bne's central Europe daily newsletter, a list of the top stories from the region. You can receive the list as a plain text or html email or as a pdf file. Manage your delivery options here: http://businessneweurope.eu/users/subs.php TOP STORIES CREDIT 1. CBR Cuts 25bp ñ Cautiously Hints at End to Easing 2. PIGS-crisis will reach Central-Europe - UniCredit 3. Russian 'BBBs': Expensive Or Not? 4. Slow Recovery Ahead for Emerging Europe and Central Asia 5. Southern European debt markets have entered panic mode 6. Contagion risks seen greatest in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary 7. EU27 Feb industrial new orders rise by 1.1% vs Jan 8. Forint and leu most at risk from Greek contagion 9. S&P downgrades Greece to speculative level 10. Greece downgrade doesn't derail equity and bond fund inflows 11. How does the latest IMF economic outlook tally with Erste GDP forecasts? 12. Sovereign bond issuers tough out Greek drama 13. The uncertainty caused by the Greek crisis is spreading. 14. VISEGRAD: Worst days behind emerging Europe, but then so are best 15. Watch the credibility gap in Europe 16. World Bank sees slow recovery ahead for Emerging Europe and Central Asia RUSSIA macro news 17. 1Q10 Russian GDP growth reported at 4.5%; NEUTRAL 18. April inflation may decline to 0.4-0.5% 19. CBR drives monetary aggregates via FX interventions 20. Customs duties to decrease gradually 21. Government proposes reducing amount of tax-deductable interest on corporate foreign debt 22. Interest rates returned to pre-crisis levels in March 23. MinEconomy presents new economic forecasts for 2010-13 24. Money supply expands 32.1% y_o_y in March 25. Official sees no further cuts in refinancing rate till September 26. Recovery in trade flows continued in Q4 of 2009 and into 2010 27. Russia impacted the most by Greece Downgrade 28. Russia won't replenish reserve fund in 2010 29. Russia's fedl budget deficit at RUB169.5bn January-February 30. Russia, China set to organize yuan, ruble exchange trading RUSSIA bonds 31. Alfa-Bank: FY09 results review 32. Alliance Oil Company to offer bonds totaling RUB20bn 33. Gazprombank can place Eurobonds in autumn 34. HCFB sets coupon rate for RUB5bn bonds at 9% 35. Mechel says fully placed RUB5bn exchange bond 36. MTS repurchases RUB 7.1bn of its bond issue 37. Russia's Sverdlovsk Reg to offer RUB3bn bonds in 2010 38. Sberbank to place Eurobonds in May 39. TMK reports FY09 results; expects a better 2010 40. VEB places $1bn domestic foreign currency-denominated bonds RUSSIA loans 41. Gazprom took out $367mn loan from Citibank in February 42. North Ossetia receives RUB1.47bn loan from VTB Bank 43. Tatneft long-term debt increases 78% in 2009 44. VTB may extend Ukrainian Finance Ministry $500mn RUS RATINGS 45. Alfa MTN Issuance Ltd. $600 Million 8% Senior Notes Due March 18, 2015, Rated 'B+' 46. Moody's assigns Baa1 rating to Russia's new Eurobond 47. Moody's withdraws Krai of Krasnodar's (Russia) ratings 48. Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies Outlook Revised To Stable On Strong Ongoing Support; Affirmed At 'BB+/B/ruAA+' 49. Russian Irkutsk Oblast Outlook Now Positive On Possible Higher Revenues And Improved Market Sentiment; Affirmed At 'B' 50. Russian Tomsk Oblast Upgraded To 'B/ruA-' On Anticipated Debt Reduction, Moderate Budgetary Performance; Outlook Pos 51. Russian Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Now Investment Grade At 'BBB- /ruAAA'; Outlook Stable UKRAINE RATINGS 52. Fitch rates Privatbank's upcoming Eurobond B KAZAKH RATINGS 53. Fitch Assigns Kazatomprom's Notes Expected 'BBB-' Rating 54. Fitch changes Tristan Oil's rating watch to ‘Evolving’ from ‘Negative’ 55. Fitch: Servicing Concerns of Kazakh MBS Expose Risks in EMEA SF 56. Moody's assigns (P)Baa3 rating to the Notes of Kazatomprom 57. Moody's confirms KTZ's and Kaztemirtrans' ratings; outlook stable CE RATINGS 58. Fitch: EMEA Corporate Rating Stabilisation Trend to Continue into Q210 59. Fitch says EMEA CDO Outlook Negative despite Slower Credit Deterioration 60. Moody's Takes Negative Rating Actions on Greek Structured Finance Transactions 61. Republic of Hungary Ratings Currently Unaffected By Election Result, But Creditworthiness Could Benefit Over Time 62. S&P has raised CME's rating to 'B' from 'B-' SE RATINGS 63. Bulgarian City of Stara Zagora Downgraded To 'BB' On Deteriorated Liquidity Position; Outlook Negative 64. Bulgarian City of Varna Downgraded To 'BB' On Increased Debt And Pronounced Drop In Liquidity; Outlook Stable 65. Greece Long- And Short-Term Ratings Lowered To 'BB+/B'; Outlook Negative; '4' Recovery Rating Assigned To Sovereign Debt 66. Greek Bank Ratings Lowered Following Sovereign Downgrade; Outlook Negative UKRAINE CREDIT 67. Budget draft for 2010 in line with IMF conditions 68. Sovereign Eurobond in the pipeline for June 69. The next step after the budget is the resumption of the IMF loan 70. Ukraine adopts 2010 budget More realistic, but still very ambitious 71. Current account runs $0.2bn deficit in March 72. Deputy PM comments on prospective program with IMF 73. Dnipropetrovsk's rush retailer to float bonds worth UAH4mn 74. Ferrexpo may issue debut Eurobonds in 2010 75. Financial account posts $1.3bn surplus in March 76. Fitch assigns ëB-í ratings to upcoming Privatbankís Eurobond issue 77. Gov't proposes higher excise taxes on alcohol and gasoline 78. IFC approves up to $75m in loans for Mriya Agro Holding 79. IMF delegation may visit Ukraine in May to discuss loan program 80. IMF notes progress in loan talks with Ukraine 81. Metinvest starts Eurobond roadshow 82. MHP floats new eurobonds worth $330mn with 9.87% interest 83. Mriya attracted financing from the IFC 84. OVGZ placement: NBUís reserve requirement proves effective 85. OVGZ placement: yields at previous auction's levels 86. Real wages up 5.7% y/y in 1Q10 87. Ukraine C/A runs $0.2bn deficit in March 88. Ukraine's financial account (F/A) posted a $1.3bn surplus in March, reversing from February's $0.6bn gap and bringing its 1Q10 balance to -$0.6bn. (NBU) 89. VAB Bank posts 1Q10 net loss of $13m 90. XXI Century capitalizes US$ 14mn Eurobond interest payment KAZAKHSTAN CREDIT 91. Kazatomprom to sell its first Eurobond 92. Amsterdam Trade Bank may claim Almaty International Airport collateral for unpaid debts 93. GDP grows by 6.6 percent in Q1 94. Kazakh money supply increases 1.4% MoM, 14.4% YoY to US$52.7bn in March 95. Korean Shinhan Bank to help KMG EP raise $500 million EURASIA CREDIT 96. Armenia: EurAsian Development Bank to provide a $20mln loan to ArmBusinessBank 97. Armenia: In Q1 2010 nominal effective AMD rate rose by 3.3% 98. Azerbaijan: CB Notes placement results 99. Azerbaijan: CGB placement 100. Georgia: Debtor Registry Records Grow 1.7 times for a Month and Half 101. Tajikistan to see 5%-6% GDP growth annually in 2010-2012 102. Tajikistan: Money wires contribute one-third to Tajikistan's 6.8% GDP growth in Q1 103. Tajikistan: Rakhmon forecasts 5-6% economic growth in near term BELARUS CREDIT 104. Belagroprombank to borrow $800m from abroad this year CE CREDIT 105. Political attacks on central bank chief could lead to a halt of the easing cycle 106. Baltics says Greece must copy their model to ease fiscal crisis 107. Ciech signs debt refinancing agreement 108. Retail sales jump and sentiment strengthens 109. Czech central bankers make dovish comments 110. Czech economy seen growing a moderate 1.5% in 2010 111. Czech elections - potential government coalitions 112. Czech FinMin said to suggest govt should take higher dividends from state firms 113. Czech FinMin to propose more austerity measures for this year's budget 114. Czech govt urged to cut deficit as Greek drama unfolds 115. Czech pension system deficit to reach EUR1.38bn 116. Czech rates seen at bottom and will stay there until Q3 117. Eurostat Confirms Estonian Govt Deficit in 2009 at 1.7% of GDP 118. Estonia Retail Sales Decline In March 119. Estonian Industrial Output Grew Most in 3 Years on Exports 120. Germany opposes the European Union's plan to supervise national budgets more 121. Fitch, S&P await details of Fidesz's reforms that could affect Hungary rating 122. Hungarian central bank decided to cut rates by another 25bp 123. Hungarians give Fidesz a clear mandate... to do what? 124. Hungary after the elections 125. Hungary cuts interest rates again as Fidesz secures two-thirds majority 126. Hungary Fidesz calls again for central bank chief to resign 127. Hungary is changing 128. Hungary's unemployment rate jumped to 11.8% in Q1 129. Hungary: CB cut the base rate by 25bp, to 5.25% 130. Latvia's PM says country to return to growth in H2 131. Lithuania Q1 GDP came out better than expected, but recovery fragile 132. Think-tank estimates Poland Q1 GDP Growth at 3.5% 133. Poland gas firm PGNiG might up planned eurobond issue above EUR500m 134. Poland moves to settle dispute over the central bank's profit 135. Poland NBP maintains neutral bias, rhetoric remains dovish 136. Poland rate council seen holding rates at 3.5% through at least end-Q2 137. Polish central bank decided to keep the key policy rate unchanged 138. Polish retail sales in March surprised on the upside 139. Slovakia industrial PPI drops by 6.1% y/y in March 140. Slovakia Sells EUR205.5M Feb 2016 Bond, Average Yield 3.3444% SE CREDIT 141. Budget deficit seen posing risk Bulgaria's ERM II entry bid this yr 142.