In Brief
Turkey wants right to re-export Russian gas ANKARA (Reuters) – Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said yesterday Turkey was seeking a re-export clause in its contract to import Russian natural gas. The Turkish government wants the right to re-export the fuel in its current contract to import an annual 6 billion cubic meters of Russian gas from a western trans-Balkan pipeline, Yildiz told reporters. «The right to re-export has to do with selling the gas we buy to another country. .. which is a right we don’t have in our Russian contract, so it will be among our proposals,» he said. «We are especially seeking such (a clause) in our agreement with Russia which expires in 2011.» Turkey has a contractual right to re-export gas it imports from Azerbaijan and it sells that fuel to Greece. Bulgaria sees no direct devaluation threat SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s currency peg to the euro is not directly threatened by a possible devaluation in Latvia, because the Balkan country is in better economic and fiscal shape, Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski said yesterday. But he acknowledged that pressure on Bulgaria’s peg would increase if Latvia did devalue, because he said investors tended not to distinguish between countries with currency boards. «The analysis of the macroeconomic and fiscal positions as well as the state of the banking systems of the two countries show substantial differences. That is why a direct devaluation threat does not exist for the Bulgarian lev,» he said in written response to Reuters’s questions. Unemployment rates Turkey’s unemployment rate will continue to climb in the April-June period from a 16.1 percent record high, but the rise will be at a lower rate, Labor Minister Omer Dincer told a news conference yesterday. Separately, data from the state employment agency Iskur showed that jobless claims were 44,491 in May, versus 53,464 in the previous month. The number of people staying on the benefit rolls fell for the first time this year in May, dropping to 313,860 from the previous month’s 317,766, the Iskur data showed. «The unemployment rate will rise in the April-June period, but the rate of rise will fall,» Dincer said. (Reuters) Romania jobless Romania’s unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent in May from 5.7 percent in April, the employment agency said yesterday, as global financial turmoil plagues the European Union state’s manufacturers. In May 2008, the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent. Tumbling demand from the eurozone has hurt central and eastern European economies in recent months, forcing many manufacturers to halt production and lay off workers. (Reuters) Croatia shipyard Croatia’s talks about the future of its shipyards may be given a new boost after the European Commission showed willingness to rescue Poland’s historic Gdansk shipyard, a source close to Zagreb’s EU talks said yesterday. «The Commission’s announcement about Gdansk shows that it can be flexible when it wants. This could create room for our demands about Kraljevica docks,» said a government source with good knowledge about EU negotiations. (Reuters)
