From November 1 to April 1, a single speed limit has been introduced in the capital: the speed limit in the city is 50 km/h, except in areas where the speed limit is lower, the press service of the Kyiv City State Administration reports.
“In the areas where the speed limit was 80 km/h in the previous period, the speed limit signs “80” have already been dismantled,” the press service said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
It is noted that 10 sections of the road with a speed limit of 80 km/h were previously identified for the period from April 1 to October 31.
“We urge drivers to be careful and comply with the speed limit,” the Kyiv City State Administration called.
October was full of new openings for CSD LAB. The network of laboratory offices has grown by ten locations and today counts 91 offices. Thus, the company is confidently going to the planned indicator of 100 offices by the end of the year.
Out of ten openings, three were in the capital. Also new locations were opened in the following regional centers: Odessa, Dnipro (two new laboratories), Chernivtsi, Lutsk and Mykolaiv. Another new city on the coverage map is Vizhnitsa, Chernivtsi region. Although the city itself is relatively small, the agglomeration together with the surrounding villages reaches 30 thousand people. Thus, CSD LAB increases its presence not only in large cities, but also in small settlements. Exactly where there is an unmet need for professional laboratory diagnostics.
“New laboratory offices are not just dots on the map. As a socially responsible business CSD LAB actively invests in Ukraine and the health of Ukrainians. We do our best to ensure that every citizen has access to expert diagnostics. For this purpose, we are becoming closer geographically, as well as integrated into the Medical Guarantee Program of the National Health Service, which allows us to do a large number of tests on a free basis on the referral of a doctor”, – said CEO of CSD LAB Oleksandr Dudin.
Recall that at the beginning of the year CSD LAB network had 40 laboratory offices. Thus, for the current year the number of the company’s offices has already more than doubled. Which also ensured the creation of more than 300 new jobs.
About the company:
CSD LAB is one of the leading laboratories in Ukraine, providing more than 1,500 tests: from general blood analysis to determination of genetic disorders in tumors by NGS method. For 13 years CSD LAB has been one of the largest pathomorphologic laboratories in Eastern Europe.
Registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine in October this year increased by 83% compared to October 2022 – up to 5.7 thousand units, and are 0.7% higher than in September 2023, Ukravtoprom reported on its Telegram channel.
According to the association, Toyota continues to hold the lead in the market with a 40% increase in registrations by October last year – up to 929 units, Volkswagen’s second result is 574 cars (three times more), and Skoda (in September – 4th position) took third place, pushing BMW aside, with an increase of 46%, up to 477 units.
BMW’s fourth result is 461 cars (up 3.6 times), and Renault closes the top 5, as it did a month earlier, with 432 cars (+60%).
The top 10 in October 2023 also included: Nissan – 309 units; Hyundai – 240 units; Mercedes-Benz – 224 units; Mazda – 220 units; Peugeot – 200 units.
The title of the month’s bestseller, as in September, went to the Renault Duster with 387 registrations (in October 2022, it was the Toyota RAV4 crossover).
“Ukravtoprom states that in January-October 2023, Ukrainians purchased and registered 49.6 thousand new passenger cars, which is 60% more than in the same period last year.
The weighted average price of land in Ukraine in January-September 2023 increased by 10.4% to 38.5 thousand UAH/ha, according to a report on the state of the land market in Ukraine, prepared by experts of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) with the support of the USAID AGRO Program.
Analysts noted that 31.1 million hectares of land in Ukraine are privately owned, so a 10.4% price increase is equal to an increase in the capitalization of the agricultural land market by UAH 115.1 billion, which corresponds to about a tenth of the country’s general budget revenues in 2023.
“In September 2023, the weighted average price of one hectare of all agricultural land amounted to UAH 38.45 thousand. At the same time, the weighted average price of land designated for commercial agricultural production was higher than the average and amounted to UAH 39.0 thousand per hectare. This means that “commodity” land is valued by the market somewhat more than other types of agricultural land in Ukraine,” the study says.
According to KSE experts, the highest prices for agricultural land are observed in Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Volyn and Ternopil regions, as well as Kyiv and Poltava regions. The lowest prices are in the areas affected by hostilities and in the frontline regions.
According to the study, in the third quarter of 2023, 21.4 thousand transactions of sale and purchase of agricultural land covering 43.5 thousand hectares were carried out, which is slightly different from the second quarter, when 44.0 thousand hectares of farmland were sold under the same number of sale and purchase agreements. At the same time, in the second and third quarters of 2023, the land market was significantly more active than in the first quarter, when 15.7 thousand transactions with a total area of 32 thousand hectares were concluded.
In the fourth quarter, the land market may grow even more, as after the harvest is over and additional resources are released for land purchases, buyers are expected to become more active and demand for land plots is expected to increase, KSE predicts.
In January-September 2023, the insurance company “Knyazha Life Insurance Group” (Kyiv) collected UAH 46.04 million of insurance payments, which is 7.66% more than in the same period of 2022.
This is reported on the website of the rating agency Standard-Rating, which affirmed the company’s financial strength rating/credit rating at uaAA+ for the first nine months of 2023.
The volume of insurance payments and reimbursements made by the company for the first nine months of 2023 amounted to UAH 26.172 million, which is 2.69 times higher than the volume of payments for the same period in 2022. Thus, the insurer’s claims ratio increased by 34.10 p.p. to 56.85%.
The insurer’s acquisition expenses for the three quarters of 2023 decreased by 19.71% to UAH 6.263 million compared to the same period of 2022. According to the results of the reporting period, the company’s operations were profitable. In particular, the insurer’s net profit increased to UAH 11.124 million.
As of October 30, 2023, the company’s assets increased by 5.92% to UAH 785.635 million, equity showed an increase of 13.03% to UAH 128.557 million, liabilities increased by 4.64% to UAH 657.078 million, cash and cash equivalents amounted to UAH 2.625 million (a decrease of 95.01% due to an increase in current financial investments).
Thus, as of the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2023, equity capital covered 19.56% of the insurer’s liabilities, and 0.4% of its liabilities were secured by cash and cash equivalents.
At the same time, RA notes that as of October 1, 2023, the insurer formed a portfolio of financial investments in the amount of UAH 741.204 million, which included bank deposits (UAH 168.9 million) and investments in government bonds (UAH 572.304 million). Thus, as of the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2023, liquid assets (cash and cash equivalents, bank deposits and government bonds) covered 113.20% of the insurer’s liabilities.
RA emphasizes that a high level of external support for the company is provided by its shareholder, the international insurance group headquartered in Austria, Vienna Insurance Group Wiener Städtische Versicherung AG, which is represented by 50 companies in 30 countries and is the leader in the insurance market of Central and Eastern Europe.
Raiffeisenbank (Kyiv) earned UAH 6 billion 135.77 million in net profit in January-September this year, while in the same period of 2022 this figure was UAH 2 billion 394.84 million, according to the bank’s quarterly report.
According to the report, Raiffeisenbank’s net profit for the third quarter amounted to UAH 3 billion 17.11 million, which is 2.8 times higher than in the second quarter and 1.7 times higher than the net profit for the comparable period last year.
According to the report, the bank’s net interest income increased by 41.1% year-on-year to UAH 12.4 billion in January-September 2023. In particular, for the third quarter, this figure amounted to UAH 4.4 billion compared to UAH 3.9 billion in the second quarter and UAH 3.6 billion for the third quarter of 2022.
It is emphasized that the bank’s income from operating activities in January-September amounted to UAH 22.3 billion, which is 37% higher than the result of the previous year.
According to the information provided, Raiffeisenbank received UAH 4.8 billion (or 21% of total income) from interest income on certificates of deposit (CDs) and interest rate swap agreements with the National Bank. At the same time, interest income on domestic government bonds refinanced by the NBU brought the bank UAH 2.5 billion, which is 11% of total income.
The bank reminded that for 9 months of 2022, interest income on DS and interest rate swap transactions amounted to UAH 2.3 billion (or 14% of total income).
“Most of the income from external customers is generated by transactions with residents of Ukraine. Most long-term assets are concentrated in Ukraine,” the financial institution emphasized.
It is noted that net fee and commission income increased by 30.3% to UAH 1.8 billion in the first nine months of this year compared to the results of 2022. However, in the third quarter, this figure was 30% less than in April-June this year, and 33% less than in the third quarter of 2022 – UAH 495 million.
According to the report, since the end of 2022, the bank’s assets have increased by UAH 15.8 billion and reached UAH 182 billion as of September 30. This growth is primarily due to a significant increase in the volume of securities – from UAH 25.4 billion to UAH 41.8 billion.
The amount of cash decreased from UAH 8.2 billion to UAH 7.4 billion, while cash on current accounts with the NBU and other banks increased by 9.2% and 66.5%, respectively, to UAH 12.7 billion and UAH 11.8 billion.
Loans and advances to customers grew slightly compared to the previous quarter, by 6.3% to UAH 53.5 billion, but still remain below the previous year’s level of UAH 61.7 billion. Meanwhile, the debt of other banks increased by 3.5% to UAH 43.7 billion and remains above the 2022 target of UAH 39 billion.
In July-September, the financial institution managed to increase its customer accounts from UAH 146.4 billion to UAH 152.6 billion, while at the end of last year they were at the level of UAH 143.6 billion. Banks’ funds, on the contrary, decreased by UAH 220.5 million to UAH 2.2 billion in the first nine months of 2023.
It is noted that the total amount of the bank’s capital has increased by 36% since December 2022 and reached UAH 23.2 billion, including retained earnings – 4 times, to UAH 6.2 billion. At the same time, Raiffeisen’s liabilities increased from UAH 149.2 billion to UAH 158.9 billion.
The bank spent UAH 2.8 billion on salaries, bonuses, other incentive payments and payroll taxes, compared to UAH 2.6 billion last year.
Raiffeisen Bank was registered in Ukraine in 1992 and is the largest bank with foreign capital in Ukraine. In October 2005, the bank became part of the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International AG. Currently, Raiffeisen Group owns 68.21% of the bank’s shares, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development owns 30%.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of September 1, 2023, Raiffeisenbank ranked 4th (UAH 132.9 billion) among 64 banks operating in the country in terms of assets.
