Consumer prices in Hungary were 17.6% higher on average in July 2023 than a year earlier. The highest price rises were measured for electricity, gas and other fuels as well as food over the last twelve months. In one month, consumer prices increased by 0.3% on average, within which, however, clothing and footwear cost 1.4%, food 0.9% and consumer durables 0.5% less, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) reports.

Investors prefer sustainability to be measured in the case of commercial buildings too. Therefore new detailed rules will be elaborated and a so-called green passport for properties will be introduced, international law firm Baker McKenzie and CBRE reported after a special roundtable discussion in Budapest. 

Nearly all players in the commercial real estate market share the view that the pressure is growing on corporate leaders to have an ESG-compliant stock and operation. But the majority of them stop at „E” i.eg. being more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. This was one of the takeaways of last week’s Budapest ESG Meetup, organized by Property Forum in partnership with workcloud24.

Consumer prices were 24.5% higher on average in December 2022 than a year earlier which is a new record, compared to the last decade. The highest price rises were measured for electricity, gas and other fuels as well as food over the last twelve months. Prices increased by 14.5% on average in 2022 compared to the previous year, Hungarian Central Statistical Office reports. 

A Foster + Partners and Buro Happold consortium has won the competition to design the new CPK airport between Warsaw and Łódź. 

Bulgaria’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) aims to facilitate economic and social recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and to create a more sustainable, equitable, and successful economy. It includes a set of schemes not only to restore the economy's growth potential but to boost it, too. In achieving this, several construction projects to increase energy efficiency and decrease CO2 impact are to be implemented in 2023-2026, says Anita Dangova at EPI, EECFA’s Bulgarian research institute.

Today, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 50 basis points and approved the Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI) in an effort to make sure inflation returns to its 2% target over the medium term.

The Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Teresa Czerwińska and the acting Managing Director of EIB Global, Markus Berndt, spoke at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano and shared the EIB’s views on Ukraine’s recovery. They reaffirmed the EU Bank's steadfast position on the importance and urgency of investing in Ukraine's European future, even as fighting continues across the country. Emphasising its support for the recovery plan presented at the conference, the EIB offered a new instrument, the EU-Ukraine Gateway Trust Fund. This financing instrument could support Ukraine’s early and long-term recovery and the country’s journey towards EU membership.

In recent quarters, the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) has measured substantial and growing overvaluation in the housing market, which has been coupled with an increase in banking sector risks related to lending. These risks have not decreased so far even with the uncertainty related to the war situation of the past months; hence, supporting banks' resilience with regulatory tools is warranted. The Financial Stability Board of the MNB has therefore decided to raise bank capital requirements and will increase the countercyclical capital buffer rate to 0.5% from 1 July 2023, for the first time since its introduction six years ago, Hungarian economic daily Portfolio.hu reports.

Since the 1970s, the centre of Bratislava's Old Town has been divided by the multi-stream road Staroměstská Street. The City Hall, together with the Bratislava Metropolitan Institute, now has a plan to improve the area. They want to build a park and a large pedestrian plaza above the road to bring the divided city together and add a new residential and recreational space to the city, the Slovak capital's city hall has announced.