Oil prices are rising Wednesday on signals of declining U.S. inventories, continuing a rebound that began after an unexpected production cut by a number of OPEC+ countries last Sunday.
American Petroleum Institute (API) data released Tuesday night showed a 4.35 million-barrel decline in U.S. oil inventories for the week ending March 31.
The official data on U.S. energy stocks for the previous week will be published by the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The previous week the country’s oil reserves decreased by 7.49 million barrels.
June Brent crude futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange stood at $85.36 a barrel by 8:05 a.m. Wednesday, up $0.42 (0.49%) from the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts rose $0.01 to $84.94 a barrel on Tuesday.
The price of WTI futures for May oil grew by $0.36 (0.45%) up to $81.07 per barrel at electronic trades of NYMEX by that time. At the end of previous session the cost of contracts grew by $0.29 (0.4%) to $80.71 per barrel, the highest since January 26.
Oil prices rose nearly 7% during the first two sessions of the week. On Sunday evening, nine of the 20 OPEC+ countries announced voluntary production cuts from May to the end of the year, in addition to the commitments they had made at last October’s meeting to adjust oil production (a total reduction of 2 mln bpd to August 2022 levels).
Additional voluntary production adjustments by OPEC+ countries will total 1.66 mln bpd.
The unexpected decision of a number of OPEC+ states led to the revision of forecasts for oil prices by a number of experts and caused a new wave of concerns about inflation, Bloomberg notes.
Exports of agricultural products from Ukraine in March 2023 increased by 12% compared to the previous month and reached a record 7.8 million tons since the war, the Ukrainian Confederation of Agrarian Business (UCAB) said in a statement on its website.
“51% of exports in March 2023 were made through the work of the “grain corridor”, and the rest through alternative export routes. However, it is necessary to take into account that not all products had time to physically cross the border,” UCAB pointed out.
According to the data of UCAB, in March 2023, vegetable oils showed the largest increase in the structure of exports – by 28%, to 556.2 thousand tons, oilseeds – by 23%, to 683.1 thousand tons, cereals – by 10%, to 5.7 million tons (corn – 67%, wheat – 29%, barley – 4%) and oilcake – by 10%, to 454.7 thousand tons (sunflower – 83%, soybean oil – 17%).
According to analysts, the important news for the Ukrainian export in March 2023 was the continuation of the “grain corridor”.
“The existence of such an export channel gives hope to Ukrainian agrarians to realize the rest of products of the 2022 harvest and receive funds to continue their economic activities, beginning from the spring sowing season, which is already in full swing”, – the UCAB noted.
The main problem is the significant gap between the world price and the price of major crops on the Ukrainian market. Reducing of this gap would help farmers to accumulate funds for the purchase of fertilizers, pesticides, the use of which will be minimal this year due to limited financial resources of farmers, UCAB summarized.
Poltavpivo (Poltava) has increased its net profit almost fourfold to UAH 81.46 mln in 2022 from UAH 20.69 mln a year earlier.
According to the announcement of the April 24 annual meeting, the shareholders suggested that part of the UAH 3.267 mln profit be transferred to the reserve capital, while the remaining UAH 78.189 mln remain undistributed.
It is indicated that at the end of 2022 the company increased to 214.30 million of its undistributed profits, which is 1.7 times more than a year earlier.
The assets of the company in 2022 increased by 24.5% up to UAH 414.39 mln, including an increase in accounts receivable by 29.5% up to UAH 61.66 mln and reserves by 29.4% up to UAH 75.07 mln.
Free cash almost doubled up to 104.23 mln UAH from 52.47 mln UAH, and fixed assets insignificantly reduced to 170.05 mln UAH.
The company managed to increase its equity capital by 29.6% up to UAH 361.96 mln, and its long-term liabilities reduced by 35.4% going to UAH 11.67 mln, while the current ones increased by 17.7% going to UAH 40.77 mln.
According to the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, the owner of 96.5309% of shares is LLC “Emporium-P” (Poltava). Previously this company belonged to the Russian Stovropol Brewery, but in 2019 it was owned by the Cypriot Armico Beer Ltd. In the annual report for 2021, its 100% owner was named Rasul Ebzeyev, but in 2022 the beneficiary in the state register is the director of “Poltavpivo” Vasily Lavrichenko.
Another 1.7108% at the end of 2021 belonged to the Cyprus-based Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited, and another 1.7583% was owned by 414 persons.
Poltavpivo pointed out that on April 14, 2022 Emporium-P recalled its head Magomet Hasanov, who served as general director of Stavropol Brewery and Emporium-P itself, from the PJSC Supervisory Board and appointed Lyubov Pogromskaya instead.
Then, last June, Khasanov resigned as director of “Emporium-P,” and he was replaced by Yulia Podvorchan.
“Poltavpivo” in the report for 2021 indicated that it offers 37 beer titles (TM “Poltava”), 17 soft drinks (BAN) and 4 – kvass.
In 2021, the company decreased beer sales by 2% to 2 million 587.8 thousand dal, BAN – by 16.5% to 604.8 thousand dal, but kvass sales rose by 5.9% to 119.3 thousand dal.
Its net income in 2021 rose by 3.7% – to 323.33 million UAH, and net profit decreased by 35% – to 20.7 million UAH.
Housing prices in the European Union fell by 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022, writes the Financial Times citing the EU statistical service Eurostat.
Housing became cheaper during the quarter for the first time since 2015. Prices fell in 15 of the 27 EU countries amid tightening standards and rising lending costs.
Denmark (6.5 percent) and Germany (5 percent) recorded the largest price declines.
“In the coming quarters, we expect further deterioration in the price dynamics in the housing market,” the newspaper quotes the words of economist Ani Heimann of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Over time, a lack of investment by construction companies will limit supply and stabilize prices, Heimann believes.
Data on the state of the market in some countries suggest that in early 2023, housing continues to get cheaper, said FT. For example, in the Netherlands, its value decreased by 1.5% in January-February.
The decline in the real gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year will slow down to 19% from 35% and 30.8%, respectively, in the fourth and third quarters of 2022, such is the forecast of the National Bank Ukraine has published the Inflation Report on its website.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has downgraded its forecast for the growth of the Ukrainian economy in 2023 to 1% from 8%, which it expected in September last year, according to the updated Regional Economic Prospects published on Thursday.
Losses in annual GDP growth in 2023 will amount to 1.9 percentage points (p.p.), taking into account the positive effect of 0.5 p.p. due to the use of generators by businesses, and in 2024 losses will decrease to 0.6 p.p. thanks to the gradual recovery of the system, according to the baseline scenario of the macroeconomic forecast of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in 2022 increased by 2.3 times compared to 2021 – to $11.125 billion from $4.771 billion, the State Statistics Service reported on Tuesday.
The growth of consumer prices in Ukraine in January 2022 accelerated to 0.8% from 0.7% in December and November, which, however, is significantly lower than 2.5% in October and 1.9% in September. According to it, in January last year, inflation was 1.3%, so in annual terms, in January 2023, it decreased to 26% from 26.6%.
As of February 15, foreign aid accounted for 68.8% of the sources of financing the state budget deficit since the beginning of this year, Head of the Verkhovna Rada budget committee Roksolana Pidlasa told Interfax-Ukraine.
The majority of members of the monetary policy committee of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) at a meeting on January 25 noted that they consider the base key policy rate forecast to be realistic with it remaining at the level of up to 25% until at least the first quarter of 2024, the NBU website reported.
In January, Ukraine exported 25% less agricultural products through the grain corridor than in December due to the deliberate actions of Russian inspectors to delay vessels in the Bosphorus.
The volume of construction work performed in Ukraine in January-September 2022 decreased by 56.5% compared to the same period in 2021, to UAH 66.3 billion, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.
Economic Monitoring’s Project Manager – PhD in Economics, Maksim Urakin
