A dry cargo ship with more than 32,000 tons of corn left the Ukrainian port on Friday, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) reported.
“On December 16, the vessel Almeray left the port of Odessa, it is carrying a total of 32.4 thousand tons of corn to Libya as part of the Black Sea grain initiative,” the report said.
There are two dry-cargo ships headed for Ukrainian ports, which on December 16 passed through the maritime humanitarian corridor.
“As of December 16, the total tonnage of grain and other agricultural products exported from the three Ukrainian ports is 14,023,297 tons. A total of 1,112 vessels were allowed to move so far: 556 to arrive at Ukrainian ports and 556 to leave them,” summarized the JCC.
It is noted that from December 1 to 15, more than 1.6 million tons of Ukrainian food products were shipped to other countries.
As many as 13 million tons were shipped on December 5, 12 million tons on November 26, 11 million tons on November 16, 10 million tons on November 3, 9 million tons on October 28, 8 million tons on October 21, 7 million tons on October 12, 6 million tons on October 5 and 5 million tons on September 28.
Net sales of dollars by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increased for the fourth week in a row, and this time significantly – to $834.1 million from $580.8 million a week earlier.
According to the National Bank on its website, it bought $7.3 million from November 12 to December 16, the same as usual buying volumes during the war, while it sold $841.4 million, compared to $583.4 million a week earlier.
On the cash market, the hryvnia remained at around UAH 39.95/$1 for the week, with a narrow spread.
As we informed, the volume of interventions of the National Bank in November reduced to $1.57 billion from $2.03 billion in October and $2.75 billion in September, while international reserves increased by 10.7% – to $27.42 billion.
In general, since the beginning of the year to December 16, inclusive, the NBU bought $3 billion 250.4 million and EUR111.0 million in the market, and sold $24 billion 829.7 million and EUR1 billion 789.1 million.
Including the purchase of foreign currency has reached $2 billion 593.5 million and EUR111.0 million since the beginning of the war, while the sale – $22 billion 59.5 million and EUR1 billion 789.1 million.
The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection is allocating an additional EUR100 million to the Energy Support Fund of Ukraine, the German Embassy in Ukraine reports.
“Today there was another massive Russian attack on Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure. International partners and Germany stand side by side with Ukraine in these dark times,” the embassy tweeted.
“By the end of the year, the fund will receive EUR130 million from Germany for the urgent needs of Ukrainian energy companies,” the German diplomatic mission said.
As reported, at a conference of solidarity with Ukraine on December 13 in Paris, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said that Germany would allocate EUR50 million in assistance for the winter period for Ukraine, and in total, following the results of the conference, EUR415 was announced in aid to the country’s energy sector suffering from Russian strikes.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has published a list of shopping malls, shopping and entertainment centers, pharmacies and other establishments that will be able to work during prolonged blackouts.
As clarified by the mayor in his Telegram channel, the work schedules during blackouts may be reduced.
Retail chains: https://tinyurl.com/2wundzdr
SHOPPING MALLS: https://tinyurl.com/w22r77e5
Communal markets: https://tinyurl.com/fd95bf6b
Agricultural fairs: https://tinyurl.com/29fxpcj9
Establishments with consumer services: https://tinyurl.com/y5282vcx
Food establishments: https://tinyurl.com/5n75nza6
Service stations and auto shops: https://tinyurl.com/27t824ac
Private medical institutions: https://tinyurl.com/7vjmfrdy
Pharmacies of KP “Farmacia”: https://tinyurl.com/44wcz9aw
Veterinary clinics and pet stores: https://tinyurl.com/3nje8whn
Banks: https://tinyurl.com/897vy75x
Ukrposhta outlets: https://tinyurl.com/525yfyty
In addition, the mayor published a list of the pump rooms, which are powered by generators: https://tinyurl.com/bdd25kdt; a map of the pump rooms: https://tinyurl.com/yvt2zmct; and a map of the heating points: https://tinyurl.com/y6dcrcnn.
Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has submitted a proposal to the Cabinet of Ministers to increase the fee per excise tax stamp for alcoholic beverages to UAH 0.3205 from the current UAH 0.1926, and for tobacco products, tobacco-containing products for electric heating (TCHE) and e-cigarette liquids to UAH 0.1484 from UAH 0.091.
According to the text of the relevant government decree, which is available to the news agency Interfax-Ukraine, increase in price of excise stamps is necessary to compensate printing companies for the cost of their production and storage.
The Ministry of Finance in an explanatory memorandum to the draft decree states that the last time the cost of excise stamps for alcoholic beverages and tobacco products was revised more than 8 years ago and now their established value does not correspond to the actual cost of production.
For example, according to the stamp manufacturer, in 2022 alone, its costs for electricity for production are up 74% over 2021, 17% for heat, 107% for heating, 106% for hot water, and 6% for security.
“Prices per ton of paper in 2022, according to the commercial proposals of the National Bank of Ukraine, has already increased by more than 200%, and will increase in 2023 by at least 32.2% (since 2014, the price has increased 4.8 times),” the explanatory note to the draft resolution states.
In addition, the increase in the cost of energy and other resource components makes the issue of compensating the producer of stamps for the costs associated with their storage and sale relevant.
According to the document, 1.9 billion excise stamps for tobacco products and 0.56 billion stamps for alcoholic beverages will be produced by the end of 2022. At the same time for the first 9 months of this year 2.07 billion excise stamps were produced for the above products (2.91 billion in 2021).
Thus, the adoption of the draft decree would require next year for the Ukrainian producers and exporters of alcoholic beverages 71.6 million UAH (0.56 billion pieces * 0.1279 UAH) of additional costs, and for tobacco products – 108.3 million UAH (1.9 billion pieces * 0.057 UAH).
The U.S. dollar is falling against the euro, yen and pound in trading on Friday.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0647 as of 8:07 a.m. KSC on Friday, down from $1.0629 at the close of the previous session.
The pound is trading at $1.2204 by that time against $1.2179 the day before.
The cost of dollar in pair with the yen decreased to 137.25 yen, compared to 137.77 yen at the end of previous trades.
The ICE index showing the dollar’s movement against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and the Swedish krona) was losing 0.17%, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index lost 0.23%.
Traders continue to assess the outcome of meetings of the world’s major central banks.
The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) on Wednesday expectedly raised its key rate by 50 basis points, and central bank leaders revised upward their forecast for the rate level by the end of 2023. According to the new forecast, the rate will peak at 5-5.25%.
In addition, during the traditional press conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell repeatedly hinted that the Fed does not intend to proceed with rate cuts until at least early 2024.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England followed suit and also raised their rates by 50bp.
Investors also analyze the statistical data published the day before from the USA that showed a bigger-than-expected decline of retail sales and an unexpected drop of industrial production in November.
U.S. retail sales in November decreased by 0.6% compared to the previous month, said the U.S. Department of Commerce. It’s the biggest drop since the beginning of the year, Trading Economics noted.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected a decline of 0.2%, while Trading Economics had forecast a 0.1% decline.
Industrial production in the U.S. in November decreased by 0.2% compared with the previous month, while analysts had expected growth of 0.1%. In annual terms industrial production increased by 2.5%.
The statistical data that did not meet expectations increased fears that the Fed’s tight monetary policy could already begin to exert downward pressure on the economy, Trading Economics wrote.
