Ukrainian banks in January-June this year increased net profit by UAH 11.4 billion, or 16.8% compared to the figure for the same period of 2023 – up to UAH 79.04 billion, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said.
“The main drivers of profitability are maintaining a high net interest margin and almost zero allocations to provisions for losses from active operations,” the NBU explained the reasons for the profitability growth.
“In the first half of the year, only seven small banks out of 62 solvent banks were unprofitable with an aggregate loss of UAH 171 million,” informed the National Bank.
According to his data, the profitability of the main assets of banks during the second quarter further declined. In particular, it was falling fastest for NBU certificates of deposit, in connection with which banks reduced the volume of investments in these securities, the regulator said.
At the same time, rates on domestic government loan bonds (OVGZ) also went down, but the volume of investments in them grew.
“It was due to the increase in assets that banks maintained a sufficiently high net interest margin and increased income,” the regulator emphasized.
It is noted that the return on equity of banks for the first half of 2024 amounted to 48.4%, which is lower than the same indicator of the first half of 2023, which amounted to 56%.
The volume of income tax accrued by banks for the first six months of this year amounted to UAH 21.9 billion compared to UAH 12.4 billion for the comparable period last year, as the income tax rate was increased from 18% to 25%.
According to the NBU, last year the net profit of the banking system amounted to UAH 82.8 bln after accruing UAH 76.2 bln of profit tax at the increased rate of 50%.
Rapeseed oil exports in July-June 2023-2024 marketing year (MY) reached a record high of more than 420,000 tons, Ukroliaprom association said.
“Ukrainian rapeseed oil is confidently entering the markets of China, EU, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries of the world. Positive dynamics is also observed for rapeseed meal,” the industry association said.
According to Ukroliaprom, for the first time in all years in Ukraine processed 1.0 million tons of rapeseed, which amounted to 22.3% of the harvest in 2023, and this despite the fact that rapeseed is considered mainly export-oriented raw materials.
In addition, exports of soybean oil and meal, and their production and processing accordingly, continue to grow, especially in January-June 2024.
“The growth of domestic processing of seeds and soybeans, as well as a significant increase in exports of high value-added products, namely oil and meal, confirms the association’s position on the need to create conditions for maximum processing of oilseeds at domestic facilities. Further development of the oil and fat industry of Ukraine is expected not so much in increasing the processing of sunflower seeds, but in such oilseeds as soybean and rapeseed, which are still considered as export-oriented. In this matter we hope for the support of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Ministry of Economy of Ukraine”, – emphasized the industry association.
Ukroliaprom stated that sunflower oil exports in January-June 2024 doubled compared to the same period in 2022 and 1.3 times in 2023. In the ten months of 2023-2024 MY, sunflower oil exports increased 1.2 times compared to the same period of 2022-2023 MY.
Ukraine in January-July this year increased imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms three times compared to the same period last year – up to 343.678 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Friday, imports of coke in monetary terms for this period increased 2.25 times to $124.520 million.
Imports were mainly from Poland (87.67% of shipments in monetary terms), Hungary (4.25%) and China (3.08%).
In the first seven months of the year, the country exported 1.025 thousand tons of coke worth $231 thousand to Moldova (99.57%) and Latvia (0.43%), while there were no exports in January and March 2024.
As reported, Ukraine in 2023 reduced imports of coke and semi-coke in physical terms by 8.5% compared to 2022 – to 328.697 thousand tons, imports in monetary terms decreased by 25.8% – to $129.472 million.
Ukraine exported 3.383 thousand tons of coke in 2023, down 12.3% from 2022. In monetary terms, it decreased by 22.2% – to $787 thousand. Exports were made to Moldova (100% of shipments in monetary terms), while imports were mainly from Poland (88.47%), Colombia (7.72%) and the Czech Republic (3.15%).
The State Service for Medicines and Drug Control has suspended the license of the laboratory of the Marzeyev Institute of Public Health.
“Given the systematic nature of the identified violations, the validity of the certificate of industry certification issued to the laboratory is suspended until the elimination of remarks,” – reported on the website of the State Service for Medicines and Drug Control.
The State Service noted that the certificate was suspended following the results of the survey of the general level of compliance of the laboratory with the criteria of sectoral attestation on the organization of laboratory control of medicines, conducted on July 18-19.
According to the service, the survey “identified non-compliances that relate to the quality management system, equipment and drug testing.”
“The main findings indicate that numerous data integrity violations call into question the results of quality control of medicines that were checked during the survey. It has been established that studies were conducted according to methods that are not reflected in the quality control methods approved in Ukraine,” the State Service reports.
In addition, the State Service noted that the laboratory did not inform the State Service, in particular, about the lack of resources for conducting research and failure to agree on subcontracting, violation of handling of samples of medicines.
Goslexluzhba also emphasizes that at present, apart from the laboratory of the Marzeyev Institute, two other laboratories have WHO prequalification: the Central Laboratory of Goslexluzhba and the laboratory of pharmanalysis of the State Enterprise “State Expert Center (SEC) of the Ministry of Health”. In addition, the State Enterprise “Central Laboratory for Quality Analysis of Medicines and Medical Products” is accredited by the European Directorate for Quality of Medicines (EDQM) and is part of the pan-European network of laboratories OMCL.
As reported earlier, the laboratory of the Marzeyev Institute of Public Health appealed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister, the leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Health Ministry with a request to prevent the transfer of the market of laboratory control of medicines into private hands. The laboratory stressed that “state control of the quality of medicines is being transferred into the hands of private business, with the State Service for Medicinal Products using for its own purposes the private authorized laboratory Dobrobut-Likilab LLC, created for itself”.
As previously reported, the laboratory of the Institute of Public Health named after Marzeyev asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Marzeyev. Marzeyev asks the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the Prime Minister, the leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ministry of Health to prevent the transfer of the market of laboratory control of medicines into private hands.
Natalia Ostanina, head of the laboratory of the Marzeyev Institute, believes that the management of the State Research Laboratory of Public Health is forcing the laboratory out of the market of quality control of medicines by transferring the directions for quality control from the State Research Laboratory of Public Health to the private laboratory Dobrobut Likilab LLC.
The State Research Laboratory for Quality Control of Medicines of the Marzeyev Institute of Drugs of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine was established in 1996, it employs four doctors of sciences, 10 candidates of sciences and 30 researchers. It is accredited by the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine in accordance with the requirements of DSTU EN ISO/IEC 17025:2019 (EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017, IDT; ISO/IEC 17025:2017 IDT), certified by Gosleksluzhba, Quality Management System is certified by the Ukrainian Medical Certification Center for compliance with the requirements of DSTU EN ISO 9001:2018. The laboratory is the only one among scientific state institutions to be prequalified by WHO for the right to conduct quality control of medicines.
Open4Business, Ukraine’s leading economic and business information portal, is now available in six languages. The new language version of the site is Chinese, with both traditional and simplified spelling used in articles.
The Open4Business project, created to meet the needs of foreign investors, specializes in providing consulting services for companies seeking to enter the Ukrainian market. The company uses an individualized approach to each project, engaging internal and external experts in the required fields.
The new Chinese version of the website is aimed at facilitating interaction with Chinese-speaking clients and partners, as well as providing a deeper understanding of the unique opportunities offered by the Ukrainian market. This initiative reflects the expansion of the international presence of the Open4Business project and its ability to promote global integration and development of the Ukrainian business environment.
“This step is an important milestone in our efforts to provide foreign companies with easy access to the Ukrainian market and strengthen international business ties. The Chinese market has a huge potential for cooperation and investment in the Ukrainian economy. The new version of our website, in my opinion, will help improve the access of Chinese companies to the Ukrainian market and facilitate the search for business partners,” – said Maxim Urakin, Open4Business project manager.
The Chinese language has two main writing systems: traditional and simplified. Traditional Chinese characters are used mainly in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. They preserve more ancient forms that have more strokes and are often more difficult to write and read.
Simplified Chinese was introduced by the Chinese government in the 1950s and 1960s with the aim of increasing literacy among the population. It uses less complex characters with fewer strokes and is widely used in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Despite the different forms of writing, both variants have many similarities and can be largely understood by speakers of both systems.
Open4Business is a joint project of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency and Open4business.com.ua, created to meet the needs of foreign companies to enter the Ukrainian market and find business partners in Ukraine.
China has traditionally been one of Ukraine’s largest trading partners. In the first half of 2024, according to the State Customs Service, Ukraine exported about USD 1.6 billion worth of goods to China, while imports from China to Ukraine amounted to more than USD 6.4 billion.
Open4Business, Ukraine’s leading economic and business information portal, is now available in five languages. The new language version of the website is Spanish. The move, according to the portal’s editorial team, will significantly improve access to the Ukrainian market for foreign companies and help them find business partners.
Open4Business, created to meet the needs of foreign investors, specializes in providing consulting services for companies seeking to enter the Ukrainian market. The company uses an individualized approach to each project, engaging internal and external experts in the required fields.
The new Spanish-language version of the website is aimed at facilitating interaction with Spanish-speaking clients and partners, as well as providing a deeper understanding of the unique opportunities offered by the Ukrainian market. This initiative reflects the expansion of the international presence of the Open4Business project and its ability to promote global integration and development of the Ukrainian business environment.
“This step is an important milestone in our efforts to provide foreign companies with easy access to the Ukrainian market and strengthen international business ties, as 28 Spanish-speaking countries are now home to more than 500 million people and millions of business projects, many of which could become investors in the Ukrainian economy,” said Maxim Urakin, Open4Business Project Manager.
Thus, the launch of the Spanish version of the Open4Business website opens up new opportunities for Spanish-speaking businessmen interested in entering the Ukrainian market.
