SLOVENIA
Banks receive EUR 400m-worth of loan payment deferral requests
Slovenian banks received EUR 401.1 million worth of requests for a deferral of loan payments in the three months since the government's emergency scheme envisaging such deferrals took effect. The number of requests filed was 23,700, which amounts to 3.6% of all loans, Banka Slovenije said on Friday. (STA)
SID Bank carries out its first "Covid-19" bond issue
The state-owned SID export and development bank has issued its first "Covid-19 bonds" to collect almost EUR 350 million, the bank announced in a press release on Thursday. (STA)
Merger to create agro co-op with a projected EUR 65m in annual revenue
Two agricultural cooperatives operating in the south-east of Slovenia have announced plans for a merger that will create the largest cooperative in the country with almost 1,000 members, 260 employees and an expected annual revenue of almost EUR 65 million. (STA)
Car sales stabilising after epidemic
The situation in the automotive industry seems to be slowly stabilising after the epidemic, the latest statistics suggest. In the first six months of the year, sales were down by a third but in June the year-on-year drop was only 7.27%. (STA)
GZS proposes changes to state loan guarantee scheme
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) stressed on Friday that the state loan guarantee scheme for companies needed changes beyond those envisaged by the fourth stimulus package because of delays in its implementation. The GZS proposes that the maximum possible amount of loans under the scheme be raised to 25% of the company's annual sales. (STA)
Telekom Slovenije has not yet decided on sale of Planet TV
Ljubljana, 3 July - Following unofficial reports that Telekom Slovenije has decided to sell its subsidiary Planet TV to the Hungarian free-to-air channel TV2, news broke today that the supervisors of the state-owned telco have not yet adopted a decision on this and in fact postponed it on Thursday to next Tuesday. (STA)
Jobless total down 1.1% in June after three months of growth
The registered jobless total in Slovenia stood at 89,377 at the end of June, which is a 1.1% decrease on May but 26.3% more year-on-year, show data released by the Employment Service on Friday. This is the first decrease after three consecutive months of unemployment growth. (STA)
Minister announces investments in railways, roads
Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec said on Friday that Slovenia must upgrade its railway infrastructure and enable cheaper and faster train rides if it was to keep up with the trends of the EU Green Deal. Motorways are also in for renovation, but not during the summer months, he said. (STA)
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Stocks rise after better-than-expected jobs report to close out winning week; European markets close sharply higher on vaccine hopes, U.S. jobs surprise; BELEX15 up 0.26% as Komercijana gained nearly 5%; Unemployment in Serbia may hit 13% at the end of 2020.
Stocks rose on Thursday following a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report as the economy tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 92.39 points higher, or 0.4%, at 25,827.36. The Nasdaq Composite hit a record high, climbing 0.5% to 10,207.63. The S&P 500 also gained 0.5% to end the day at 3,130.01. Boeing contributed to the gains, rising 0.6% after the airplane maker completed recertification flights for its grounded 737 Max jet.
Wall Street started the session with sharp gains after the government reported that a record 4.8 million jobs were created in June. Economists were expecting 2.9 million jobs were created. The unemployment rate fell to 11.1% from 13.3% in May. Economists were expecting a rate of 12.4%, according to Dow Jones.
The Labor Department also said, however, that initial jobless claims rose by 1.427 million in the week ending June 27. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected initial U.S. jobless claims to rise by another 1.38 million, down from 1.48 million the week earlier.
European stocks closed sharply higher Thursday on positive news around a potential coronavirus vaccine and better-than-expected U.S. jobs data.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally closed about 1.9% higher, with banks jumping 4.5% to lead gains as all sectors and major bourses remained in positive territory.
The euro zone unemployment rate in May came in at 7.4%, up from 7.3% in April as the region grappled nationwide lockdowns in a bid to contain the pandemic.
Serbian BELEX15 was up 0.26% as Komercijana Banka advanced 4.9%. This was also the most traded name with RSD 11.9m in volume. All other names were far less active.
The gradual recovery of economic activity in Serbia started in May, but the deterioration of the labour market will continue throughout the second half of this year and probably for part of 2021, and will mainly affect the formal labour market, according to a bulletin published by the Faculty of Economics and the Foundation for the Development of Economic Sciences (FREN). Since a decline in the GDP by one percentage point leads to an increase in unemployment of 2-4 percentage points and since Serbia expects to see an economic decline of 3%, it can be assumed that the unemployment rate will be on average around 12.5% this year, and at the end of this year and the beginning of next year, it could grow to between 13 and 14%, the report says. The unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2020 was 9.7%. (CNBC, ILIRIKA)
