The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will again keep the discount rate at 25% at its December 8 meeting, most bankers surveyed by Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday forecast.
“I am confident that the National Bank will decide on December 8 to keep the discount rate at the current level of 25%, as there is no reason either to raise or to lower it. Following October’s results, inflation accelerated somewhat, but remains within the NBU’s forecasted trajectory. In any case, the level of the discount rate has no direct impact on the inflation processes at the moment,” Ivan Svitek, chairman of the board at Unex Bank, said.
According to him, the increase in consumer prices is mainly provoked by logistical constraints and the destruction of production facilities. Consequently, a further increase in the discount rate will not be able to significantly affect inflation.
“On the other hand, the NBU is also unlikely to lower the rate in the current environment. The monetary transmission effect, which the regulator was counting on by raising the rate to the current level, has not been exhausted yet,” he added.
Svitek noted that the increase in interest rates on deposits of individuals continues and somewhat accelerated in December due to the revision of the profitability of deposits by major players, but now to achieve the goal set by the regulator does not make sense to reduce the discount rate this month.
Konstantin Khvedchuk, strategic development analyst at Pivdennyi Bank, also predicts that the discount rate will remain at 25%.
“While inflation continues to approach 30% y/y and inflation expectations are kept high, it is necessary for the NBU to ensure a comparable value of hryvnia resources in the economy. Therefore, decisions will be made to accelerate a preliminary change of the discount rate to market rates, for example, increase of reserve requirements or issue of term deposit certificates,” he said.
His opinion is shared by Alexey Blinov, head of Sense Bank’s analytical department, who also expects the discount rate to remain at the current level.
Nikolay Voytkiv, director of the Risk Management Department of Accordbank, made the same forecast.
“We do not expect changes in the discount rate, as there were no significant changes in the macro environment over the past month. There is stabilization in the exchange rate, while inflation expectations remain high,” he pointed out.
He added that at the same time, the regulator is likely to reduce the interest rates on certificates of deposit (currently 23% per annum) and their maturity in order to encourage banks to invest in OVDPs.
“The discount rate will remain unchanged in the medium term. Firstly, there are no prerequisites for its revision, as the inflation rate remains high. Second, the NBU has given a guideline that it will not revise it until the first quarter of 2024,” OTP Bank head Volodymyr Mudryy pointed out.
Oksana Shveda, deputy chairman of Credit Dnipro bank, reminded that the Monetary Committee’s tasks include not only the discount rate, but also decisions regarding stimulation of monetary instruments to reach the target. Therefore, according to her, there is a possibility that the NBU will announce decisions on the mandatory reserve requirement rate, which will include current or term accounts in all currencies, at the meeting on 8 December.
Ukraine ranks seventh in the world in terms of Internet traffic.
“Ukraine is actively developing traffic exchange points. For four years now, the country has ranked seventh and is ahead of many other states that are much larger than Ukraine,” Bill Woodcock, Executive Director of Packet Clearing House (PCH), said at the UADOM conference in Kyiv on Thursday .
He also noted that PCH has been cooperating with the UA domain registry by Hostmaster since 2004.
“During this time, best security practices have been introduced in the Ukrainian domain, and now Ukraine is among the 25 most developed countries in the world that use the most advanced security technologies,” the PCH executive director emphasized.
Packet Clearing House is an international non-profit organization responsible for providing operational support and security for critical Internet infrastructure, including Internet data exchange points and the core of the Domain Name System.
The “.UA” domain was delegated by the international organization IANA (later renamed ICANN) to Dmitry Kokhmanyuk and Igor Sviridov in 1992 in the interests of the entire Ukrainian Internet community. For a long time, the administration and development of the domain on a voluntary basis was carried out by specialists who united the Ukrainian Network Coordination Group (UA NCG) and created in 2001 a specialized enterprise Hostmaster LLC, which currently performs the functions of an administrator.
Wednesday, November 30, no precipitation in Ukraine, only in most northern regions light snow at night. In the western and northern regions, there are icy patches on the roads in places, Ukrhydrometcenter reports.
East wind, 7-12 m/s, gusts of 15-20 m/s in places in the south-east and east of the country.
The temperature at night is 0-5° below zero, in the Carpathian region and in the east of the country 6-11° below zero. During the day from 2° frost to 3° warm, in the southern part during the day from 4° warm to 1° frost, in the Crimea during the day 5-10° warm.
For Kyiv, light snow at night, no precipitation in the daytime. The roads are icy in places. East wind, 7-12 m/s. Night temperature 2-4°C, daytime 0-2°C.
According to the Central Geophysical Observatory. Boris Sreznevsky, the highest temperature during the day on November 30 in Kyiv was recorded in 2012 and amounted to 14 °, the lowest at night – 16.3 ° below zero in 1931.
Thursday, December 1, no precipitation in Ukraine. Fog in some places in the Carpathians at night and in the morning. In the western and northern regions, there are icy patches on the roads in places.
East wind, 5-10 m/s, gusts of 15-20 m/s in places in the east of the country.
The temperature at night and in the daytime is 1-6 degrees of frost, at night in most of the eastern, northern and Rivne regions 4-9 degrees of frost. In Transcarpathia and the south of the country at night and in the daytime from 2° frost to 3° warm. In Crimea, 1-6° heat at night, 4-9° during the day.
In Kyiv, no precipitation, icy roads in places. East wind, 5-10 m/s. The temperature at night and in the daytime is 2-4 degrees of frost, at night on December 1, 6-8 degrees of frost.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking via video link at the 17th General Assembly of the International Exhibitions Bureau, proposed to hold the International Exhibition in 2030 in Odessa.
“I am honored to represent the Ukrainian candidacy for the World Expo in 2030. To represent Odessa – and therefore the entire Black Sea region. Why Odessa, Ukraine and the Black Sea? This year Ukraine has become a global example of courage. And billions of people for all continents have seen what Ukrainian invincibility means and why Russian terror will not achieve its goal. And they will see how Ukraine will become a model of restoration,” Zelensky said.
The Kyiv analytical center “Club of Experts” together with the consulting company “Club of Exporters of Ukraine” and the information portal Open4business launched a new project to help Ukrainian businesses achieve success in international markets.
According to the founders of the project, at the first stage, a series of video courses will be created on the YouTube platform, with the help of which it will be possible to get acquainted with the peculiarities of doing business in the EU countries, importing and exporting goods, European certification rules, etc.
“Thanks to our project, businesses will be able to receive prompt advice and assistance from our representatives both in Europe and in Ukraine,” said Maxim Urakin, founder of the Club of Experts.
According to Evgenia Litvinova, CEO of the Ukrainian Exporters Club, the business project will include not only a series of training videos, but also the possibility of providing specialized advice to those companies that want to quickly and cost-effectively enter the European and global markets.
“For each consulting assignment of our client, we carefully select a project team, which is formed from internal and external experts who are specialists in the required industries. The presence of good contacts and reputation within the country, both in industries and with various government agencies, allows us to quickly and efficiently implement projects,” Litvinova said.
For individual advice on doing business in the EU and other countries of the world, you can fill out the online form at the link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeit-dG6SJ9E9QtDSZ4ggqQEmn1RHyAMKfDqO90Db4cDn1ZEA/viewform
Project partners:
Exporters Club: https://people2people.com.ua/ru/
Portal Open4business: https://open4business.com.ua
Expert club channel: https://www.youtube.com/@user-nz9lh8yg9g
BUSINESS, BUSINESS_IN_EU, CLUB_EXPERTS, CLUB_EXPORTERS, HELP_BUSINESS, URAKIN, ЛИТВИНОВА
In China, more than 31 thousand cases of infection with the coronavirus COVID-19 were detected per day, the authorities continue to tighten measures to combat the disease, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
Over the past 24 hours, 31,444 cases of coronavirus have been detected in the country – the highest number of infections in a day since the virus was discovered in Wuhan at the end of 2019.
In the center of Henan province, the city of Zhengzhou, authorities announced tightening measures to combat the virus. In eight districts of the city, starting Thursday, for five days, people will be able to leave their homes only to buy food or receive medical care. About 6.6 million people live in these areas. The entire city will be tested daily for the virus.
In Beijing, a hospital for patients with COVID-19 opened in the exhibition center. It was also denied access to Peking University of International Studies after a case of the virus was identified there. Some shopping malls and office buildings were closed in the city.
On Monday, the city of Guangzhou imposed a lockdown on the Baiyun District, which has a population of about 3.7 million, and asked residents in parts of Shijiazhuang City not to leave their homes while mass tests for the virus were carried out in the city. About 11 million people live in Shijiazhuang.
China has a “zero tolerance” policy for COVID-19. This means that in order to limit the spread of the virus, measures such as lockdowns and mandatory quarantine for those who have come into contact with infected people are being implemented. At the same time, earlier in November, the country’s authorities announced some easing of measures, in particular, a reduction in the period of self-isolation for those arriving in the country.
