Linked2Balkan news, the 26th of January 2011 edition

Listing of Fondul Proprietatea: ecstasy for the Stock Exchange, prolonged agony for former owners

The listing of Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund) injected adrenaline into the weak heart of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, encouraging investors to daydream. Yet former owners have to wait before they can see their dreams come true. Yesterday, January 25th, Fondul Proprietatea made history at the Bucharest Stock Exchange, this being the most awaited listing of the last decade.

Consumer price indices, Slovenia, 2010

In 2010, the annual inflation rate was 1.9% and the 12-month average price growth was 1.8%. In the first half of 2010 prices increased on average by 2.4%, while in the second half of the year they decreased on average by 0.5%.

Bosnia’s Hefty Trade Gap Narrows Slightly

Exports in 2010 rose faster than imports, the country’s statistics agency reports, though overall gap between imports and exports remains wide. Compared to 2009, exports in 2010 rose by 28.3 per cent to some 3.5 billion euros, while the value of imports grew more slowly by 10.2 per cent to some 6.8 billion euros.

BBC to Cut Macedonian, Albanian, Serbian Services

The BBC World Service is expected to announce today that it will close its Macedonian, Albanian and Serbian language services, part of a series of cutbacks to its programming. The British broadcaster will also cut its English for the Caribbean and Portuguese for Africa, in a bid to save £46 million a year.

Greek CEOs look past 2011

The majority of top Greek company officials are downbeat about their firm’s prospects for the year but express optimism over the medium term, according to global survey results revealed on Tuesday. The survey, put together by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Alternative fuels for transport

Transport has been the sector most resilient to efforts to reduce CO2 emissions due to its strong dependence on fossil energy sources and its steady growth despite the considerable efficiency gains that have already been made. Emissions can be reduced by improving energy efficiency, transport efficiency, and effective transport demand management.

Swiss Alpiq to expand its wind farm in Bulgaria

Swiss energy firm Alpiq will invest about 36 million euros ($49.02 million) to expand its wind farm in Bulgaria and boost its installed capacity to 72.5 megawatts, the company said on Tuesday. Alpiq put in operation 20 wind turbines with a total output of 50 megawatts near the city of Kazanlak, some 200 km east of Sofia in November last year.

Software releases researchers from microscope

EU-funded scientists have developed a system that releases researchers from the chore of spending hours hunched over a microscope looking for cells of interest in large samples. The system is described in the journal Nature Methods by a team led by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Germany.