Ukraine’s imports of passenger cars, including cargo-passenger van cars and racing cars (UKT VED code 8703), in January-February 2025 in monetary terms decreased by 7.8% year-on-year to $719.92 million.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) of Ukraine, in February imports of passenger cars to Ukraine exceeded the February-2024 figure by 3% to $385.94 million, while in January there was a 17.8% drop compared to January-2023.
The top three largest suppliers of cars to Ukraine in January-February this year were Germany, the U.S. and Japan, while in the previous year it was the U.S., China and Germany.
In particular, the supply of cars from Germany increased by almost 40% – up to $152.15 million, and their share in the structure of car imports amounted to 21.13% against 13.94% a year earlier.
Cars worth $122.13 million (15% less) were imported from the USA to Ukraine. Japan, which last year was not among the top three countries with the largest car imports, this year imported $79 mln worth of cars in two months.
It is noteworthy that China, whose imports a year ago amounted to $114.88 mln (second place after the USA), has not yet entered the top three.
Overall, imports of passenger cars from other countries totaled $366.63 million during the period compared to $413.87 million in January-February last year.
At the same time, in January-February this year Ukraine exported such vehicles for only $1.9 million, in particular to the UAE (67% of exports), Czech Republic and Moldova, while a year earlier the country sold them to foreign markets for $3.8 million, mainly to Canada (47.7%), USA (26.8%) and Moldova.
According to the STS, in the total structure of imports of goods to Ukraine in January-February the share of passenger cars amounted to 6.37%, in the structure of exports – 0.03%.
As reported, in 2024 in Ukraine imported passenger cars for $4.385 billion – 8% more than a year earlier, exported $10.1 million (2.7 times less).
FAO supported the initiative of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food to build small vegetable storages with capacity from 20 to 1000 tons, first of all – in the frontline areas of Kharkiv and Mykolayiv regions, said the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitaliy Koval.
“Today in Ukraine up to 35% of grown products are lost due to lack of proper storage conditions. We are solving this problem! Together with FAO we launch the construction of modern vegetable storages with capacity from 20 to 1000 tons, first of all – in the frontline territories of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.
The Minister explained that each small storage facility gives the opportunity to work about 150 small farmers. Around it, new jobs and cooperations are created. In addition, crop losses are reduced, which is critical for food security.
Kowal added that once the small storage projects are up and running, construction will begin on large multi-section facilities that will be used not only by farmers, but also by businesses, supermarkets and social institutions – hospitals, schools, etc.
“My goal as a minister is for these vegetable storage facilities to become the basis for the development of the cooperative movement among agrarians,” the minister emphasized.
In addition, the ministry team discussed with FAO Regional Program Manager for Europe and Central Asia Raimund Yele and Acting Head of FAO Office in Ukraine Mohammed Azuka a new project to support agrarians in the production of biogas and electricity from agro-biomass.
“The development of bioenergy is not only energy independence, but also an opportunity for additional income for farmers,” summarized the Minister.
construction of vegetable storage facilities, FAO, MINISTRY OF AGRARIAN POLICY
PJSC “Ukrnafta” on March 24 announced a tender for Medical Insurance of employees.
As reported in the Prozoro system, the expected cost is UAH 182.980 mln.
Applications for participation in the tender will be accepted until April 1.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increased sales of foreign currency on the interbank market last week by $98.4 million, or 18%, to $643.6 million, according to the regulator’s statistics on its website.
According to the statistics, the central bank has not bought any foreign currency over the past two weeks.
Last week, the National Bank bought the most foreign currency since the beginning of March, but it is still less than in February this year and roughly equal to the amount of foreign currency purchased in the same week in March last year.
Data released by the regulator during this time show that the negative balance between the volume of foreign currency purchases by households and the volume of foreign currency sales narrowed last week from $26.89 million on Monday to $20.24 on Thursday.
The official hryvnia exchange rate weakened by 2 kopecks to 41.5277 UAH/$1 over the week.
The same was the case on the cash market, with a narrow spread of 41.46-41.56 UAH/$1.
‘Since the beginning of March, the Ukrainian foreign exchange market has undergone significant changes in the dynamics of the dollar. While in February the dollar was gradually strengthening, in early March it began to decline, followed by a gradual recovery after 10 March,’ analysts of the currency exchange market operator KYT Group commented on the market situation in their March review.
According to them, the Ukrainian cash FX market was affected by a decline in demand for the dollar following a large-scale import of cash currency in February: according to the NBU, $1.316 billion in cash dollars and the equivalent of $450 million in euros were imported into Ukraine.
The NBU’s interventions help to smooth out exchange rate volatility and maintain a controlled situation on the market, but the increase in budget spending in March traditionally creates additional demand for foreign currency, which may affect the correction of the hryvnia exchange rate, KYT Group experts added. They expect that in the short term, over the next 1-3 weeks, the dollar is likely to remain in the range of UAH 41.30-42.30/$1.
As reported, the NBU’s net interventions in February fell to $3bn from $3.75bn in January.
In February 2025, Ukrainians’ purchases of foreign currency exceeded sales by $0.95bn, which is also down from $1.48bn in January this year.
Ukraine’s international reserves as of 1 March 2025, according to preliminary data, amounted to $40.15 billion, which is 6.7%, or $2.86 billion, less than a month ago.
The Cabinet of Ministers has set the average annual rate of the official hryvnia/US dollar exchange rate in the 2025 state budget at 45 UAH/$1.
https://interfax.com.ua/news/economic/1058312.html
