The updated macro-forecast of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) assumes receiving $2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility, as well as the issue of eurobonds worth $1 billion, deputy governor of the NBU Dmytro Sologub has said at a press conference in Kyiv.
“We expect that in the fourth quarter the new program is likely to start with the IMF, and Ukraine will receive $2 billion. And we also expect $2 billion in each of the next years as part of the new structural financing program,” he said.
Sologub stressed that such an assessment is an expert commentary. According to him, if the funds arrive a little earlier or a little later, it will not have a significant impact on other macroeconomic parameters, except for international reserves.
The banker also estimated, based on the example of other countries and the size of Ukraine’s quota in the IMF, that the size of the new program could be in the range of $5-10 billion for a period of 36 to 48 months.
“We have no insight, this is our expert assessment,” he said.
Sologub also said that the National Bank laid down in its forecast another entry of Ukraine to foreign markets with eurobonds in the amount of about $1 billion as its expert assessment.
The updated macro-forecast of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) assumes receiving $2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility, deputy governor of the NBU Dmytro Sologub has said at a press conference in Kyiv.
“We expect that in the fourth quarter the new program is likely to start with the IMF, and Ukraine will receive $2 billion. And we also expect $2 billion in each of the next years as part of the new structural financing program,” he said.
Sologub stressed that such an assessment is an expert commentary. According to him, if the funds arrive a little earlier or a little later, it will not have a significant impact on other macroeconomic parameters, except for international reserves.
The banker also estimated, based on the example of other countries and the size of Ukraine’s quota in the IMF, that the size of the new program could be in the range of $5-10 billion for a period of 36 to 48 months.
“We have no insight, this is our expert assessment,” he said.
Sologub also said that the National Bank laid down in its forecast another entry of Ukraine to foreign markets with eurobonds in the amount of about $1 billion as its expert assessment.
The Rivne nuclear power plant on July 18 reduced the output of its power unit No.1 (VVER-440) to 50%, having disconnected the TG-2 turbo generator at 05:26 a.m. Kyiv time on Thursday, July 18, after the leakiness of the condensate electric pump line of a turbine unit had been revealed, National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom’s press service said.
The causes of the incident are being checked. The TG-2 turbo generator is to be put into operation before 02:00 p.m. on the same day.
Energoatom said the incident is rated as “zero,” according to the INES nuclear event assessment scale, or “out-of-scale.”
Thus, as of Thursday morning, 10 of the 15 power units of four operating Ukrainian nuclear power plants were in operation.
In January-June 2019, the transport and forwarding company Lemtrans transported 24.85 million tonnes of various types of freight, which is 3.94% down on the same period of 2018.
In the six months of 2019, coal and iron ore accounted for the bulk of loading, totalling 10.44 million tonnes (9.93 million tonnes in January-June 2018) and 8.15 million tonnes (8.68 million tonnes in January-June 2018), respectively, the company’s press service said.
Volumes of transportation of ferrous metals in the first half amounted to 3.83 million tonnes (3.62 million tonnes in January-June 2018), shipments of fluxing materials totaled 1.12 million tonnes (1.60 million tonnes in January-June 2018), and those of coke 0.99 million tonnes (1.54 million tonnes in January-June 2018).
The company notes that the observed decline is due primarily to an increase in the turn-around of railway cars and a fall in the average speed of trains (Lemtrans’s turn-around period in the first half of 2018 was 7.8 days, it grew to 8.9 days in the first six months of 2019, which is an increase by 1.1 days, or 14%).
“The surplus of the railway car fleet, associated with excessive purchases of cars by market participants in 2018-2019, which were related to problems with railway equipment, is coupled with the lack of locomotives. In general, the approach to solving problems should be comprehensive. And the first step is the adoption of a new law on railway transport,” the press service quoted Lemtrans CEO Volodymyr Mezentsev as saying.
The SCM Group owns 100% of Lemtrans’s charter capital.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to foreign investors to invest in Ukraine.Zelensky posted the corresponding video on his Facebook page on Thursday.
So, Zelensky said that it is necessary to carry out a series of reforms that would contribute to the economic growth of the country.
“We need to change a lot here: fire non-professionals and hire professionals, deregulate industries, simplify rules, improve the infrastructure and many other things. As you know, changes take time … I invite you, investors, from any part of the world to join the opportunity,” Zelensky addressed investors in the English language.
The Milk Alliance Group in January-June 2019 increased sales of dairy products by 8% year-over-year, to UAH 2.92 billion.
“In the first half of this year, the situation was worse than planned. In particular, we processed only about 180,000 tonnes of milk against 207,000 tonnes in the same period last year,” Chairman of Milk Alliance’s Supervisory Board Serhiy Vovchenko told Interfax -Ukraine in an interview.
In the first half of 2019, the Milk Alliance increased the production of processed cheese by 19%, to 1,300 tonnes; that of ultra-pasteurized cream by 28%, to 1,300 tonnes; fermented cheese by 11%, to 2,000 tonnes; sour cream by 5%, to 5,300 tonnes; baby food products by 4%, to 5,500 tonnes. The output of milk in different types of packaging remained at last year’s level 27,000 tonnes.
“The output of fermented milk products fell slightly (by 2% to 14,700 tonnes). The production of butter and dry cheese whey fell by 30%, because, firstly, international prices of these products became unprofitable for us, and secondly, we did not make cheese products for export in the same volumes as in previous periods,” Vovchenko said.
In total, the group increased sales of dairy products for the six months of 2019 by 8%, to UAH 2.923 billion.
“We plan to slightly change the structure of capacity utilization in the second half of the year in order to make up the lost income in the first six months of the year. Thus, we should receive revenue at the level of UAH 6.2 billion,” he said.
He pointed out that the share of export earnings in Milk Alliance’s total sales now stands at 25%, the domestic market accounts for 75%.
