Analysts at Deutsche Bank have also improved their gold price forecasts for 2025 and 2026 amid geopolitical and foreign trade uncertainty, which is contributing to increased demand for the protective asset. Experts expect gold to cost an average of $3140 per troy ounce this year and $3700 per ounce in 2026. The previous forecast was $2725 and $2900 per ounce, respectively. At the end of 2025, experts estimate that gold will cost $3350 per ounce.
Deutsche Bank’s forecast for 2026 is the most optimistic among the world’s leading banks.
Quotes of June gold futures on the Comex exchange are growing by 1.6% – to $3022 per ounce. On the eve of the precious metal price fell below the psychologically important mark of $3000 per ounce.
One of the factors supporting gold is the active demand for precious metals from the central banks of the world. According to Deutsche Bank estimates, central banks now account for about 24% of global demand for gold against 10% in 2022.
Last week, HSBC analysts improved their gold price forecast for 2025 to $3015 per ounce, but in 2026 they expect quotes to fall to $2915 per ounce.
Total dedicated reinsurance capital rose 5.4% last year to a new high of $769 billion, driven by growth in both traditional and alternative capital, according to the Reinsurance News website, citing data from reinsurance broker Gallagher Re. According to Gallagher Re’s analysis, dedicated reinsurance capital rose from $730 billion at the end of 2023 to $769 billion at the end of 2024.
From this new high, capital for companies that account for more than 80% of the industry’s capital increased 5.3% to $629 billion. Gallagher Re attributes this to retained earnings and high net income of $117 billion, somewhat offset by return of capital of $58 billion and amortization of unrealized investments of $23 billion.
Meanwhile, alternative reinsurance capital, which excludes life, accident and health and mortgage insurance, rose 6.6% year-over-year to $114 billion thanks to a record year for the catastrophe bond market.
“In addition to growth on an accounting basis, global reinsurers’ capital adequacy remains strong on an economic basis, a metric that Gallagher Re sees as better suited for decision-making by management teams,” the company said.
UAH 56.48 billion was the total revenue of the best IT companies in the Opendatabot 2025 Index. The top three leaders belong to American companies, with Globalogic Ukraine taking the first place. Also, 2 companies left the top 10, one of which was included in the Index for 2 years. 7 out of 10 companies in the Index are in the Diia City register
GlobalLogic Ukraine , owned by the American Bonus Technology INC, debuted on the first place in terms of revenue. Revenue for the year changed slightly to UAH 11.66 billion (+2%), while profit decreased by 28% to UAH 653 million. Despite the fact that the company has been in the Index for 3 years, it took the leading position for the first time.
“We are honored to continue and develop our business in Ukraine, as we understand the high price of such an opportunity. GlobalLogic in Ukraine unites thousands of talented engineers. It is their intelligence, education, diligence and high efficiency that helps the company grow in Ukraine and pay taxes to our country’s economy. Our engineering teams in Ukraine create high-tech solutions in the areas of artificial intelligence, automotive, medical, semiconductors, and more. These developments are highly valued by our customers in the US and Europe,” comments Anna Shcherbakova, COO of GlobalLogic Ukraine.
The remaining top 3 positions were shared by two companies of Epam, founded by Arkadiy Dobkin. They account for a third of the top ten earnings. Epam Systems , which previously topped the Index for 2 years in a row, went down a notch with revenue of UAH 11.35 billion. This is 10% less than in 2023. At the same time, its profit increased by 27% to UAH 1.67 billion.
At the same time, Epam Digital ‘s revenues and profits are growing year on year. With revenue of UAH 7.5 billion (+25%) and profit of UAH 838 million (+11%), the company ranked third in the Index. It is worth noting that this legal entity was founded only in December 2021.
“EPAM Ukraine has been a leader in the IT industry for several years in terms of key indicators: the number of specialists, revenue, and the amount of tax payments to the country’s budget. Last year, we paid over UAH 1 billion in taxes, which confirms our position as one of the largest taxpayers in the Ukrainian IT sector. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the company has committed $100 million to support its Ukrainian team, their families, Ukrainian defenders and the country’s critical needs,” comments Stepan Mitish, Vice President, Head of EPAM Ukraine
For the second year in a row, Luxoft Solutions, a subsidiary of Swiss Luxoft founded by Dmytro Loshchynin, remains fourth in the Index. Its revenue fell by 7% to UAH 5.45 billion, while profit decreased by 12% to UAH 263.6 million.
The Institute of Information Technologies “Intellias” took the 5th place with a revenue of UAH 4.06 billion (-6%). At the same time, the company’s profit increased by 18% to UAH 300.7 million. The business is owned by ITE Limited, whose ultimate owners are Vitaliy Sedler and Mikhail Puzrakov.
SoftServe Technologies, founded by Lviv residents Taras Kitsmey and Yaroslav Lyubynets, moved up two places last year: 6th place. The company’s revenue grew 1.6 times over the year to UAH 3.83 billion, while profit remained the same at UAH 210 million.
Thefintech band, owned by Monobank founders Oleg Gorokhovsky and Mikhail Rogalsky, lost two positions in the Best Index this year. Due to a significant decrease in revenue – by one and a half times – the company was ranked seventh: UAH 3.71 billion. Profits decreased even more significantly: by 2.7 times to UAH 1.15 billion.
Infopulse Ukraine, founded by Oleksiy Sigovyi and Andriy Anisimov, took the ninth place. It is now owned by the Swedish company NUK HOLDING AB. The company’s revenue decreased by 5% to UAH 3.06 billion, while profit decreased by 14% to UAH 332.7 million.
At the same time, this year’s iteration of the Opendatabot Index also includes newcomers that debuted with stunning results. With revenues of UAH 3.22 billion and a record profit of UAH 2.4 billion among the top 10 companies, Highload Solutions (formerly Favbet Tech) by Dmitry Matyukha appeared in the Index. The company, registered in January 2022, accounts for a third of the total profit of the ranked companies.
Another newcomer to the Index rounds out the top ten is the young company Squad Ukraine (SQUAD), established in August 2022. The business is owned by the Cypriot company Squad IT Limited, owned by Ukrainians Lyubomyr Vasyliev and Yuriy Katkov. Last year, Squad’s revenue grew 2.8 times year-on-year to UAH 2.6 billion, and its profit grew 3.4 times to UAH 80.6 million.
It is worth noting that 7 of the top companies chose the Diia City legal regime, except for Epam Systems, Luxoft Solutions, and the Institute of Information Technologies “Intellias”. This means that these companies do not enjoy special tax benefits, a simplified administrative process, and other tools for the development of the IT sector from the state.
At the same time, this year the IT Companies Index was dropped:
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/index-it-2025
The volume of industrial production in Germany in February decreased by 1.3% compared to the previous month, according to the country’s statistical office. Analysts on average expected a 1.1% decline, according to Trading Economics.
Following the revision, the estimate of industrial production growth in January was confirmed at 2%.
The decline in industrial production in February was primarily due to a 3.2% decline in the construction industry, the department said. Food production decreased by 5.3% and energy production by 3.3%.
Meanwhile, the output of electrical equipment increased by 3.3%. The output of capital goods increased by 0.2%, consumer goods decreased by 3%, and intermediate goods by 0.4%. In annual terms, industrial production in Germany fell by 4% in February.
http://relocation.com.ua/promvyrobnytstvo-v-nimechchyni-v-liutomu-znovu-skorotylosia/
The National Bank of Ukraine has revoked the financial services licenses of six non-banking financial institutions and excluded them from the State Register of Financial Institutions.
According to the regulator’s website, this applies to FC BI.Money LLC and Rulla Ukraine LLC, which provided funds and bank metals on credit, Prostozaym LLC, State Enterprise Ukrainian Center Security, State Innovative Financial and Credit Institution – Financial Leasing, PO Lombard Onyx Plus Chernik and Company – provided funds and bank metals on credit in the form of pawn loans.
Another non-banking financial institution changed the scope of the license for the activity of a financial company.
In addition, on the basis of its own application LLC “Financial Company Liberty Finance” agreed to change the scope of the license for the activity of a financial company. Such financial services as factoring, financial leasing, provision of guarantees were excluded from it.
After changing the scope of the license, the company will have the right to carry out activities to provide financial services – the provision of funds and bank metals on credit, the activity of trading in foreign currency values in cash on the basis of the appropriate license for foreign exchange transactions.
The relevant decisions of the Committee on supervision and regulation of non-banking financial services markets adopted on April 3, 2025.
Insurance company Busin (Kyiv) in 2024 collected UAH 397.5 mln of gross premiums, which is 35.6% more than in 2023. This was reported by Standard-Rating in the information on updating of credit rating/rating of financial stability of the insurer at the level of “uaAA+” according to the national scale on the basis of the analysis for the outlined period. At the same time receipts from reinsurers have decreased by 26,64% – to UAH 31,677 mln.
Insurance payments sent to reinsurers for 2024 compared to 2023 have increased by 55,20% – up to UAH 301,021 mln. Thus, the ratio of reinsurers’ participation in insurance premiums has increased by 9.59 p.p. – up to 75,73%.
The company’s net premiums for 2024 amounted to UAH 96.457 mln, while net earned premiums amounted to UAH 40.325 mln.
Last year the company paid to its clients UAH 32,304 mln of insurance payments and indemnities, which is more than 24 times higher than the volume of insurance payments for the same period of 2023. Thus, the level of payouts increased by 7,68 p.p. – up to 8,13%.
Assets of the insurer on January 1, 2025 have decreased by 7,22% – to UAH 291,385 mln, shareholders’ equity has decreased by 19,94% – to UAH 157,908 mln, liabilities have increased by 14,26% – to UAH 133,477 mln, cash and cash equivalents have decreased by 0,35% – to UAH 253,783 mln.
IC Busin was registered in February, 1993. It specializes on risk types of insurance. It is a member of a number of professional and branch associations – League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine, Insurance Payments Club, International Association of Aviation Insurers (UA), Nuclear Insurance Pool, American Chamber in Ukraine, British Business Club.
