Serbia has decided to repatriate all its gold reserves stored abroad and transfer them to the territory of the country. This is reported by Bloomberg agency, citing sources in financial circles. The total value of assets is estimated at about 6 billion dollars at current market prices.
According to the agency, Serbia will be the first country in Eastern Europe to decide on the full return of physical gold reserves from such traditional depositories as Great Britain, Switzerland and the United States.
The decision comes amid increasing geopolitical instability, inflationary pressures and uncertainty in global markets. Serbian authorities view the physical placement of gold domestically as an additional guarantee of liquidity and sovereignty, especially in case of emergency economic or currency shocks.
As of mid-2025, Serbia’s foreign exchange reserves total approximately EUR 25.3 billion, of which:
– more than 40 tons of gold (equivalent to about EUR 2.7 billion),
– the rest are foreign currency assets, including euros, dollars and SDRs (IMF Special Drawing Rights).
Traditionally, a significant portion of Serbian gold reserves has been held at the Bank of England in London, one of the world’s largest repositories of precious metals. This bank serves more than 30 nations, including the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and others, which have also undertaken partial gold refunds over the years.
The reasons for the return are explained by several key considerations:
– Guarantee of physical control – in the face of possible international sanctions, geopolitical risks or asset blockages.
– Precedents for blockages – including the UK’s refusal to transfer gold to Venezuela, which heightened anxiety among developing countries.
– Strengthening macro-financial resilience – physical gold domestically is seen as a tool to stabilize national currencies in the event of crises.
Gold repatriation is a global trend in recent years. Such steps have been taken by:
– Germany – returned more than 300 tons of gold from Paris and New York;
– Hungary – tripled its gold reserves and transported them to the country;
– Turkey – repatriated the entire volume of gold from the US in 2018.
Serbia’s decision to return gold to its territory is not only a financially logical move, but also a political signal reflecting the growing role of sovereignty and autonomy in the management of state assets. Against the backdrop of global fragmentation of economic blocs and sanctions risks, even small economies are seeking to minimize external dependence, especially in matters related to key reserves.
https://t.me/relocationrs/1208
More than 8 thousand agricultural companies have been opened in Ukraine since 2021, according to the Unified State Register. The peak occurred a year before the full-scale invasion, when 2678 agribusinesses opened in a year. At the same time, another 3.4 thousand companies ceased operations from 2021 to 2025. Most often, agribusinesses are started in Odesa, Kyiv, and Lviv regions. More than 346 companies relocated to the western regions during this time.
8,644 agricultural companies have been registered in Ukraine since 2021. The most active year was 2021, when 2,678 companies were registered. With the start of the full-scale invasion, the number of registrations dropped to 1,558. However, in 2023, the agricultural sector revived: 1,697 new companies were registered in a year. 869 new agricultural enterprises have already been registered this year.
At the same time, 3,416 agricultural enterprises closed in Ukraine from 2021 to 2025. The largest number of closures occurred in 2021 (1,070 companies) and in 2024 (685). This year, 536 agricultural companies decided to cease their operations.
The largest number of new agricultural companies was recorded in Odesa region – 612. This is followed by Kyiv (600), Lviv region (597), Vinnytsia (591), and Dnipropetrovs’k region (535). The lowest number is in the frontline Luhansk region (40), Donetsk (101), and Zaporizhzhia (147). However, agrarians in Chernivtsi (120) and Zakarpattia (171) regions are not very active in opening their businesses.
Most agricultural companies closed in Odesa region – 606. There are also a lot of closures in Dnipropetrovska (225), Khmelnytska (201), Kyivska (199), and Mykolaivska (191) regions. The lowest number of closures was in Luhansk (21), Donetsk (49), Ivano-Frankivsk (49), and Kyiv (55).
1738 agricultural companies relocated to other regions during this period. Of these, 346 agribusinesses moved to the western regions of Ukraine over the past 5 years. Almost half of the relocators who decided to move to the west chose Lviv region as a new business location – 166 companies. Rivne region (54 companies), Volyn (39), Khmelnytsky (30), and Zakarpattia (19) are also in demand among businesses that change their residence.
Some agricultural companies that have opened during this time are steadily increasing their fortunes.
● Farmzaat Ukraine – in 2024, the company’s revenue grew 3.3 times and reached UAH 770 million
Niva-Plus – last year the company earned UAH 530 million, which is one and a half times more than in 2023.
● Agropromtekhnika – revenue grew 2.7 times year-on-year to UAH 392 million
Krasnopavlivskyi CPP – UAH 308 million, up 1.3 times compared to 2023
● Malynivska Agrofirm – the company’s revenue grew 2.8 times over the year to UAH 299 million
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/agro-in-war
The indirect cost of housing construction in Ukraine in the second quarter of 2025 increased by 2.8% compared to the previous quarter and by 14.3% to the same quarter of 2024, it follows from the indices of indirect cost of housing construction in the regions of Ukraine approved by the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories (Ministry of Development).
The relevant document establishes indirect indicators of the cost of housing construction, calculated as of July 1, 2025. According to it, the average indicator in Ukraine is 25.3 thousand UAH/square meter, while on July 1, 2024 it was 22.2 thousand UAH/square meter.
According to the Ministry, the indirect cost of construction of 1 square meter of housing in Kiev in the second quarter rose to 29.6 thousand UAH, in Kiev region – to 25.3 thousand UAH, in Lviv region – to 25.2 thousand UAH, in Zakarpattya region – 22 thousand UAH, Ivano-Frankivsk region – 22.8 thousand UAH, Odessa region – 24.3 thousand UAH, Dnipropetrovsk region – 24.6 thousand UAH. Also high indicators are set in Kharkiv and Donetsk regions – 26.6 thousand UAH/sq. m.
cost of construction, HOUSING, statistics by regions, UKRAINE
Ukraine exported 24.406 thousand tons of honey in January-June 2025, which is 1.9 times less than in the same period of 2024, when 48.113 thousand tons of this product was supplied to foreign markets. According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), revenue from honey sales for the period amounted to $53.261 million, which is 41.7% less than for the same period last year, when revenue amounted to $91.417 million.
The top three importers of Ukrainian honey in January-June 2025 were Germany, which accounted for 22.86% of purchases worth $12.177 million, Spain – 10.83% and $5.769 million respectively, Poland – 9.77% and $5.2 million respectively.
A year earlier, during the same period, the most active importers of sugar from Ukraine were Germany (25.76% at $23.546 million) and Poland (10.16% at $9.288 million), as well as the United States (15.27% at $13.955 million).
Head of business security practice at Juscutum law firm Oleksandr Horobets supported the adopted amendments to the CPC regarding NABU and SAP.
“Instead of political manipulation – legal clarity. Bill No. 12414 for the first time clearly establishes the boundaries of authority and raises the standards of human rights protection,” he said in a comment transmitted to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Wednesday.
In his opinion, in the framework of expanding the powers of the Prosecutor General, the law returns the situation to the legal field, because the expansion of the competence of the SAP from January 1, 2024, according to the law №3509-IX, contradicted the norm of the Constitution that the powers of the Prosecutor General can not be transferred to another prosecutor.
“A significant achievement of the draft law is the elimination of the destructive practice of conducting searches without court orders. The draft clearly limits this right exclusively to cases where there is an urgent need to save a person’s life, health, sexual freedom, safety or to preserve evidence of these crimes. This approach is worthy of the highest praise, because it is a direct step towards strengthening the guarantees of protection of the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens from unjustified interference in private life”, – the head of Juscutum’s business security practice is of the opposite opinion to the UBA.
He added that the adopted law also provides a number of additional guarantees for the participants of the proceedings, in particular, the request to extend the pre-trial investigation up to 12 months must now be coordinated personally by the Prosecutor General, and his deputies will not have such a right.
Horobets believes that the adopted law leaves a wide range of legal opportunities for this NABU to work in a civilized and productive manner, and reminds that the expansion of powers of the SAP occurred only from January 1, 2024, and before that this body also worked effectively.
The lawyer also noted that the changes made concern all law enforcement agencies and structures, not only anti-corruption, so we should not talk about selective intervention.
“Bill No. 12414 is not a threat, but an important step towards a more efficient, constitutional and human rights-based justice system in Ukraine. It is designed to eliminate imbalances, strengthen guarantees of citizens’ rights and make the work of law enforcement agencies more transparent and responsible,” summarized the head of Juscutum’s business security practice.
The adoption of the law with amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) No. 4555-IX (in the Rada it was under No. 12414) significantly weakens the independence of anti-corruption bodies, jeopardizes Ukraine’s European integration aspirations, and violates the principles of the rule of law and legality, in particular, due to the violation of procedures provided for by the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Bar Association (UBA) made a public statement on Wednesday.
Among the norms criticized by the UBA are the abolition of the exclusive jurisdiction of the NABU and the SAP for corruption crimes, the deprivation of the SAP prosecutors of the authority to refer to the competence of the NABU other proceedings not expressly provided for by the CPC, and the consolidation of the right of the Prosecutor General to request the materials of any proceedings and the possibility of assigning the analysis of such materials for compliance with the requirements of the law to any other prosecutor.
The statement also notes the consolidation of the exclusive competence of the Prosecutor General to report suspicion of top officials and authorizing him to close criminal proceedings against top officials.
“The possibility of appointing a prosecutor without a competition – on the basis of a personal application and based on the results of a special inspection. Such a norm levels the selection standards, contradicts the principle of independence of the prosecutor’s office and creates risks for the legitimacy of personnel decisions”, – commented in the UBA another of the norms of the adopted law.
In its opinion, the fixing of such grounds for suspension of an investigator/detective as non-compliance with the prosecutor’s instructions can be used as a tool to influence the procedural independence.
The Association also pointed out that the grounds for conducting an “urgent” search without a court decision have been expanded to include the seizure or preservation of evidence, whereas previously it was possible only to ensure the life of persons, the safety of property or in the case of prosecution of persons.
The UBA notes that the independence of anti-corruption bodies is a key requirement of international partners and a condition for financial support to Ukraine. Its provision was envisaged, in particular, in the framework of visa liberalization with the EU and programs with the IMF.
“Moreover, such a law may create obstacles for Ukraine’s accession to the EU, because it violates the principles of the rule of law, which is a fundamental component of the European integration process. Given the above, the Ukrainian Bar Association calls on the Verkhovna Rada to initiate an immediate review of the provisions of the law, which undermine the institutional independence of the NABU and SAP,” the statement reads.
The Association also calls on international partners to continue monitoring and promoting compliance with the principles of independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption system, and on the professional legal community and the public to work out changes that will comply with international standards of the rule of law.
