The growth of consumer prices in Ukraine at the end of June 2021 decreased to 0.2% from 1.3% at the end of May. In annual terms, inflation remained at 9.5%.
The State Statistics Service said on Friday, that core inflation in June was 0.4%, while in May it was at 0.7%.
In general, for the first six months of 2021, inflation in Ukraine amounted to 6.4%, core inflation to 4.3%.
Natural gas supplies to Ukraine from the EU in June 2021 amounted to 90.3 million cubic meters, which is 10.6 times more than in May (8.5 million cubic meters), the press service of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) has said.
According to its data, the entire volume of June imports was received by backhaul from Hungary.
At the same time, total supplies to the country in the first half of 2021 fell 12.4 times (by 7.405 billion cubic meters) compared to the same period last year, to 651 million cubic meters. In particular, in the mode of a customs warehouse for storage in the UGS facilities, the country received 97 million cubic meters of gas in the six months.
Net exports of natural gas from Ukraine to European countries in June amounted to 15 million cubic meters, re-export – 7 million cubic meters. In total, in January-June-2021, some 64 million cubic meters of gas were exported, 689 million cubic meters – re-exported from the customs warehouse.
“The unique ramified infrastructure of the Ukrainian GTS allows you to quickly and flexibly respond to fluctuations in demand and, if necessary, provide additional transit capacities to European partners,” Serhiy Makogon, the head of GTSOU, said.
At the same time, he stressed, in the absence of a long-term transit contract, the infrastructure of the Ukrainian gas transportation system will be optimized, and the European market will lose these maneuverable capacities, becoming dependent on the Gazprom monopoly.
“The threat of building bypass gas pipelines and monopolizing supply routes is a threat to all Europeans from the point of view of energy and economic security,” Makogon summed up.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet on Monday evening, July 12, during a dinner, according to the website of the German government.
“Chancellor Angela Merkel will welcome President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at a dinner at the Federal Chancellery on July 12, 2021 at 19:00 [20:00 Kyiv time],” it said.
It is noted that the topics of a joint discussion will be bilateral relations, the implementation of the Minsk Agreements on the settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the process of Ukrainian reforms, as well as economic issues and relations with Russia.
According to an announcement on the website of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, a conversation between German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Zelensky is scheduled for 10:00 (11:00 Kyiv time).
Earlier, Zelensky said that during his working visit to Germany on July 12, he intends to discuss with German Chancellor Angela Merkel the topic of energy security in the context of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction.
The next fifth Ukraine Reform Conference will be held on July 4-5, 2022 in Lugano, the capital of the Swiss canton of Ticino, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis has said.
This will be the fifth conference, we want to celebrate the achievements and look back, as well as make it inclusive: it is important to involve regional authorities, the private sector, and Ukrainian citizens, he said at the end of the fourth conference in Vilnius on Thursday.
The Foreign Minister said that Switzerland is glad to see that the international community, together with Ukraine, also wants to strategically support Ukraine’s search for its own path to a peaceful and stable future.
Cassis said that the official preparations for the conference will begin with his visit to Kyiv in October this year.
Following the fourth Ukraine Reform Conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba told reporters that attention to Ukraine is not decreasing. According to him, there are already applications from two countries to hold the conference in 2023 and from one in 2024.
He said that another important result was the recognition of the fact that Ukraine went through the crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic better than expected by international experts, and this is due to the reforms carried out by the country.
Speaking about the main plans for the next year, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister named the already begun judicial reform, which international partners are ready to help with.
As previously noted by the Ukrainian government, Ukraine Reform Conference is a key annual international event dedicated to expert discussion of progress with Ukrainian reforms. Initiated by the government in 2017, this conference is a platform that brings together Ukrainian and foreign officials, top business owners, EU, NATO, G7, and civil society representatives to draw an annual summary of reforms in Ukraine and discuss further priority steps and prospects.
Key goals of Ukraine Reforms Conference include presenting results of key reforms internationally; setting out the Government’s prioritized objectives for the year ahead; encouraging investment in the Ukrainian economy; and engaging the international community in Ukrainian reforms.
The first such conference was held in London, then in 2018 in Copenhagen and in 2019 in Toronto, and last year there was a break due to the pandemic.
The construction of a modern medical and diagnostic complex of the National Children’s Specialized Hospital Okhmatdyt (Kyiv) can actually be completed in 2021, said Minister of Health Viktor Liashko.
“When the new building is launched, Okhmatdyt will increase its capacity: it will be able to treat more than 32,000 patients, carry out more than 18,000 complex operations per year, in particular, more than 100 bone marrow transplants. The project will actually be completed in 2021,” he said during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada committee on national health, medical care and medical insurance on Friday.
According to Liashko, the construction of a new medical and diagnostic building and its technical equipment are included in the list of measures to prepare for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence and the Ministry of Health is challenged to complete the building by August 24.
Liashko stressed that the purchase of equipment for the complex is planned to be carried out according to the negotiation procedure.
To date, the construction project has been completed by 95%.
“To date, from the allocated amount of funds of the investment project (UAH 1.2 billion), 68 million have actually been used, contracts for 202 million have been concluded, tenders in the ProZorro system in the amount of UAH 962 million have been announced. However, there are some risks regarding the full commissioning of this building. In particular, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine blocks procurement procedures for the amount of UAH 293 million, which makes it impossible to purchase monitors for patients. Fourteen procedures for the amount of UAH 220 million did not take place,” the minister added.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 09/07/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
