In his seven years as Bank of England governor, Carney was charming and self-confident but had a volcanic temper
Smart, smooth, tough and a liberal globalist to the ends of his fingertips. That was how Mark Carney came across in his near seven-year stint as governor of the Bank of England. Judging by how he ran the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, Donald Trump should not expect too much flattery from Canada’s new prime minister.
Quite the opposite, in fact. From the moment he took over as governor from Mervyn King in 2013, it was clear Carney considered himself to be the smartest man in the room and wanted to make sure everybody knew it. He was not a man to suffer fools gladly, so the scene is set for a mighty clash of egos when prime minister meets president.
Carney arrived in the UK with a reputation as the rock star central banker and was quite the contrast with his predecessor King. Where previous governors had avoided the limelight, Carney quickly became something of a celebrity. That was not really for what he did but for how he looked.
The fashion pages analysed the man bag he turned up with at his first big speech at the University of Nottingham. He was photographed at a music festival. He seemed cosmopolitan and glamorous: the George Clooney lookalike who could wax lyrical not just about quantitative easing but about which indie bands he was listening to.
When Carney was appointed by the then chancellor, George Osborne, it was pre-Brexit, pre-Trump, pre-Covid and pre-Ukraine war. A liberal globaliser, Barack Obama, was president of the US, and a liberal globaliser, David Cameron, was prime minister of the UK. Times have changed.
In 2025, liberal globalisers are far thinner on the ground and those that remain now talk the language of populists. The Carney I knew was a strong believer in open markets and free trade. By instinct, he was – and presumably still is – opposed to protectionism. There is no small irony in the fact that liberal globalisers are now being forced to confront the reality of the world they helped to create.
Osborne had to fight hard to secure Carney’s services. When he rejected the financial package on offer to him as governor, Osborne made it more generous. When Carney said he didn’t fancy a full eight-year stint, it was cut to five. But Osborne, who had vastly increased the powers of the Bank of England after the global financial crisis of 2008, was determined to get his man. In the newly beefed-up Bank, Carney was responsible both for monetary policy – which primarily involves setting interest rates – and financial stability. In the end, his term was extended and he only left the Bank in March 2020, just as the UK economy was facing its Covid lockdown.
Carney was intellectually self-confident and worked ferociously hard, but had a central banker’s caution when it came to public statements. His answers to questions often went on for several minutes, making them pretty much unquotable, as I found out the first time I interviewed him. Given a 30-minute slot, I realised after 25 minutes that he had said nothing that would remotely make a news story. The new governor’s views about the UK housing market eventually did the trick in the nick of time.
The verbal obfuscation was quite deliberate and Carney could deliver a crisp soundbite when he thought the moment warranted it. The classic example of that came on the morning of 24 June 2016 – the day after the UK’s Brexit referendum. Britain had voted to leave the EU, Cameron had announced he was stepping down as prime minister, and the pound was in freefall.
Carney thought Brexit a bad idea but knew that at that moment the markets needed reassurance. Standing behind a lectern at the Bank of England, he duly provided it. Showing he can keep a calm head in a crisis should stand him in good stead in his new job.
If he chose to be, Carney could be charming. Once he stepped down as governor he would find the time to chat at events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos. Sometimes this was about his new role, seeking private sector financial backing to combat global heating. But the last time we spoke, Carney was railing against the points deduction imposed on Everton by the Premier League. Canada’s new prime minister has family connections to Merseyside and is a diehard blue.
There was another side to Carney’s character. Journalists sometimes caught a glimpse of his volcanic temper and Bank staff were wary of getting on the wrong side of him. As a governor he was respected but not especially liked.
Larry Elliott was economics editor of the Guardian from 1996 to 2024
PJSC Insurance Company InterExpress (Kyiv) in 2024 collected insurance payments in the amount of UAH 92.334 mln, which is 57.52% more than in 2023.
This has been announced by Standard-Rating agency on updating the company’s credit rating/rating of financial stability (reliability) of the insurer on the national scale at the level of “uaAA”.
Receipts from individuals have grown by 45,35% – to UAH 33,754 mln during this period, and receipts from reinsurers in the analyzed period have amounted to only UAH 197 th. Despite the growth of premiums from individuals, legal entities prevail in the client portfolio of the insurer, the share of which in gross premiums following the results of 2024 has amounted to 63,23%.
RA also informs that insurance payments sent to reinsurers have grown by 26,09% – up to UAH 5,862 mln in 2024 compared to 2023, the ratio of reinsurers’ participation in insurance premiums has decreased by 1,58 p.p. – to 6,35%.
Net premiums increased by 60,23% to UAH 86,472 mln, while net earned premiums increased by 56,45% to UAH 83,090 mln.
Payouts for 2024 compared to 2023 more than doubled to UAH 35.698 million and the payout rate increased by 9.55 pp. – up to 38,66%.
Assets of the company as of January 1, 2025 have grown by 45,24% – to UAH 101,851 mln, shareholders’ equity – by 17,52% – to UAH 65,365 mln, liabilities – by 151,52% – to UAH 36,486 mln, cash and cash equivalents – more than 6 times – to UAH 63,662 mln.
IC InterExpress, registered in 2004, specializes in risk types of insurance.
PJSC Inter-Plus (formerly PJSC IC Inter-Plus Kiev) will be reorganized into LLC Interplus Group (Kiev), the company reported in the information system of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NCSSM).
Such decision was made by shareholders at the meeting on March 3, 2025.
In addition, the general meeting of shareholders approved the procedure and conditions for the implementation of the transformation, elected the personal composition of the termination Commission, established the procedure and term for the application of creditors of their claims.
As reported, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) revoked the licenses for insurance activities of PJSC IC Inter-Plus and excluded the company from the State Register of Financial Institutions.
Earlier, the NBU on April 1, 2024 provided IC Inter-Plus with permissions to exit the market by executing insurance portfolios and agreed on a plan of exit from the market.
The insurance portfolio of IC Inter-Plus was formed at the expense of payments on third party liability insurance, air, water transport liability insurance (including carrier’s liability) – 76,8%, hull insurance – 6,1%, medical expenses insurance – 5,8%.
The volume of insurance premiums amounted to UAH 140,075 mln, formed insurance reserves – UAH 13,006 mln.
Change in consumer prices in 2023-2024, %
Source: Open4Business.com.ua
Payment of all taxes by the top ten filling stations by the number of filling stations by the results of 2024 increased by 40%, or by 3.1 billion UAH – up to 10.4 billion UAH, said the Director of the consulting group “A-95” Sergey Kuyun in Facebook.
“To begin with, let’s focus on the results of the top 10 networks by the number of filling stations, which account for 54% of fuel sales in the country. By taxes we mean VAT (without VAT on imports), income tax, personal income tax and unified social tax,” he wrote.
According to the expert, the payment of taxes increased despite a 2.9% decrease in sales. In particular, the payment of VAT amounted to UAH 4.2 billion, which is 55% more than in 2023.
“Among other things is explained by the effect of the preferential VAT rate of 7% during the first half of 2023,” – said Kuyun.
On payment of income tax last year was recorded growth by 32% – up to 2.2 billion UAH.
In turn, payroll taxes PIT+ESV also increased by 32% – up to UAH 3.4 billion. The average official salary for the top 50 increased over the year to 17482 UAH/month from 11853 UAH/month.
“Conclusion. The fuel market shows good dynamics of tax payment on all points, including such problematic ones as income tax and payroll taxes”, – claims the director of ‘A-95’.
According to the provided diagram, in terms of tax payment per liter of fuel the leading network is OKKO – 3.27 UAH (a year earlier 2.39 UAH), followed by Shell – 2.94 UAH (2.21 UAH) and UPG – 12.82 UAH (1.67 UAH).
Also in the top five are WOG – 2.15 UAH (1.25 UAH) and AMIC – 1.94 UAH (1.75 UAH).
The second five are KLO – 1.78 UAH (0.96 UAH), Avantazh 7 – 1.43 UAH (1.02 UAH), BRSM-Nafta – 1.36 UAH (1.09 UAH), VST – 1.2 UAH (0.88 UAH) and MOTTO – 1.09 UAH (0.53 UAH).
According to Kuyun, the increase in tax payments was mainly due to pressure from the tax service, MPs and experts. At the same time, there is still a large gap between the leaders and outsiders of taxpayers in the fuel market, which indicates, firstly, the budget losses in 2024 and, secondly, the potential to increase budget revenues in the current year.
Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has a profound negative impact on global food security. Ukraine still remains an important link in the global food chain, and restoring its full agricultural production and export capabilities is critical to stabilizing global food markets and preventing a large-scale food crisis, SEEDSwrites .
Denys Vasylenko, co-founder of the logistics company NIDERA AGRO, an expert in grain exports and logistics, and industry leader of the NGO Svit.UA, wrote about this in a blog post on the website of the public platform Svit.UA .
“Due to the war, Ukraine has lost a significant part of its traditional export routes. The blockade of the Black Sea ports, the destruction of transport infrastructure and constant security threats have created significant barriers to agricultural exports. Disruptions in the supply of food from Ukraine have led to an increase in global agricultural prices. This hit poor countries that are critically dependent on imports particularly hard.
At the same time, new opportunities for Ukrainian farmers have emerged, including the abolition of customs duties in the EU, which has made it easier to enter the European market,” Denys Vasylenko said .
Key export destinations and new opportunities
Agriculture accounts for a significant portion of the country’s GDP and is a key factor in economic sustainability. The full-scale invasion has shown how important it is for Ukraine to maintain logistics, especially the operation of sea routes and ports, to ensure a stable supply of products to global markets.
“The main goal of our work is to integrate Ukrainian grain into the European market. Ukraine’s export potential for 2025 is highly dependent on many factors, the main one being the end of the war and the establishment of peace. In the case of a positive scenario, Ukraine has a significant potential to restore and grow exports, using the opportunities of European integration, international support and domestic reforms. In a negative scenario, our export opportunities will be critically limited,” emphasizes the grain export and logistics expert.
We managed to knock Russian companies out of the Italian market
Nevertheless, the EU remains Ukraine’s main trading partner, emphasized Denys Vasylenko.
“In January 2025, the volume of exports to the EU reached $1.8 billion. 57% of our food exports cross the EU border, of which 52% remain in the EU countries. We managed to knock Russian companies out of the Italian market. Although it is still very difficult to compete with them on prices. Now the Italian and Spanish markets are open to us, but we need to gain a foothold there. Not only with the products we sell there. We need to have a good reputation and work efficiently for the long term.
As for global markets, we also need to work hard and look for opportunities. After we almost lost China, Egypt and Turkey, African countries are very important for our wheat. Now exports to these countries have increased from 3% to 13%. This is a good trend,” said the co-founder of the logistics company NIDERA AGRO.
According to him, the blocking of ports, destruction of infrastructure, disruption of transportation routes, security risks – all this creates extraordinary challenges for farmers.
“The war has dramatically changed the logistics routes of Ukrainian agricultural exports and led to the search for alternative export routes (by rail, river, through the western borders). To stabilize exports, it is important to have an effective logistics strategy that includes route optimization, coordination with European partners, and the use of new technological solutions in grain transportation.
One of the key areas of work of the NGO Svit.UA is advocacy of Ukrainian producers before European governments and the business community.
The organization is actively working to ensure stable access of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU markets and to support the competitiveness of our farmers. In addition, the NGO Svit.UA helps producers adapt their logistics processes, looks for new export opportunities and participates in the creation of effective solutions to improve agro-logistics,” adds Denys Vasylenko.
Ukrainian agricultural exports are facing unprecedented challenges, but at the same time, they are getting new opportunities, the grain export and logistics expert believes.
“Gaining a foothold in the European market, developing the African direction, searching for new logistics solutions and an effective product promotion strategy are the key areas that will determine the future of Ukrainian agricultural exports.
Ukraine has every chance to not only maintain but also strengthen its position as one of the leading players in the global food market. To do this, we need not only to effectively solve logistical issues, but also to build long-term strategic partnerships with importing countries despite any challenges,” Denys Vasylenko is convinced.
