Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of February 19
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine, also known as Ukravtodor, in 2020-2021 seeks to raise Ukraine’s score in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the quality of roads by 10-15 positions compared with the score for 2019 (114 rank).
Ukravtodor Heaad Oleksandr Kubrakov presented these plans on his Facebook page after a roundtable in the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.
“In fact, there are about 15 major market players, 60 or more auction participants in the projects of IFIs [international financial institutions], stable financing from the Road Fund (UAH 31.5 billion) and additional financing under government guarantees, as well as from funds that Ukraine received under the award of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. We are working on what is needed to improve both perception and reality – liberalization of pricing, typical tender documentation and resistance to “tender trolls,” he said.
According to the data released by Kubrakov, in 2019, four companies were the leaders in the number of complaints to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, with a total of 720 complaints.
“We are waiting for the certification of WiM systems and initiate the signing of the Memorandum of Virtue in the field of freight transportation. I am sure that Ukrainian roads cannot be saved with fines and restrictions alone. We need an active position of all market players,” the head of the agency added.
Ukrainian banks in the fourth quarter of 2019 reduced interest rates on hryvnia loans for businesses by 2.4 percentage points (p.p.), to 15.7% per annum, following a reduction in the refinancing rate by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). According to the banking sector survey posted on the National Bank’s website, the reduction in the cost of hryvnia loans for individuals was less noticeable: in the fourth quarter of 2019 the rates fell by 0.5 percentage points, to 33.6% per annum.
At the same time, according to the document, the rates on foreign currency loans to business entities are at a historically low level of 4.6% in December 2019.
The report also notes that the rates on deposits of individuals began to decline only in December, following the reduction in rates by state banks.
“During the year, state banks kept deposit rates at a high level due to inertia in the management of liabilities and assets and legal risks of PrivatBank,” the document says.
So, according to the report, the value of 12-month hryvnia deposits of individuals in the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased by 0.7 percentage points, to 15.1% per annum, in January 2020 it continued to decline by 1.1 percentage points, and in the first week of February by another 1 percentage point, to 13% per annum.
At the same time, the value of 12-month household deposits in U.S. dollars for the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased by 0.6 percentage points, to 2.6% per annum, and in 2020 by another 0.7 percentage points.
In addition, according to the document, the cost of hryvnia funds of corporations during the fourth quarter of 2019 fell by 2.7 percentage points, to 10.3% per annum.
Windrose will launch regular flights between the largest cities of Ukraine, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Odesa and Mykolaiv from April. According to the press service of the company, flights will be operated daily.
In addition, from November 2020 Windrose also plans to launch flights to Ivano-Frankivsk.
According to the data in the reservation system on the airline’s website, the cost of a ticket from Kyiv to Dnipro will be from UAH 719, from Kyiv to Kharkiv from UAH 719, from Zaporizhia to Kyiv from UAH 607.
“I dreamed of building a comfortable domestic transportation program … However, I could not do it. But the dream remained and still waited in the wings to become a reality. Windrose has been carrying out tourist transportation to different parts of the world for more than 16 years. Later it became clear that it’s time to apply our experience to domestic flights. This year we are launching a new domestic program that will connect large cities of our country by convenient and fast air traffic,” Windrose CEO Volodymyr Kamenchuk said.
Flights will be operated on board ATR72-600 aircraft.
Consumer sentiment of Ukrainians in January 2020 worsened by 3.1 points, to 89 points on a 200-point scale, according to the website of the Info Sapiens research agency. “In January 2020 the highest decrease (about 6 p.p.) experienced the indices of current personal well-being (to 79), short-term economic expectations (to 92.9) and the propensity to consume (to 81.7). Population aged 60 years and older show the most pessimistic attitudes,” the agency said on its website.
At the same time, they said the index of expected changes in personal financial standing grew by 4.1 p.p.
“However, the growth of index of expected changes in personal financial standing when other indices decrease is atypical and rarely observed. Next month there is a possibility of correction,” Info Sapiens analysts comment.
As reported, consumer confidence of Ukrainians in 2019 rose sharply in the first months after the presidential election: in the second and third quarter, the figure jumped from 65.3 to 97.5 points. However, in the next two months, the decline to 91.7 points was recorded, and only in December the figures improved slightly.
Milk production in Ukraine in January 2020 (excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Joint Forces Operation area) decreased by 2.5% compared to the same period last year, to 545,200 tonnes.
According to the State Statistics Service, farmers produced 322,700 tonnes of meat (live weight) in January this year, which is 4.5% more than in January 2019.
Egg production in January-2020 increased by 7.4%, to 1.22 billion.
