The cost of housing in Kiev and the purchasing power of the population are growing at a commensurate pace, and the ratio of price to annual income is at the lowest level over the past 10 years, according to the Financial Stability Report of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“Although the cost of housing is growing, it still remains affordable in terms of relative indicators. Prices and incomes of the population are growing commensurately. In the first quarter of 2021, purchasing activity in the housing market was almost a tenth higher than the five-year average for the first quarter,” the NBU said in the report.
According to the forecast, the growth of household incomes, the gradual recovery of mortgages and a decrease in the profitability of deposits will stimulate the growth of demand for housing. At the same time, the long-term implementation of the reform of urban planning control can reduce the number of new supply, which, in turn, affects the rise in prices: in April 2021, the growth of prices in Kiev exceeded 10% per year.
According to the NBU, in January-May 2021, Ukraine issued 213 building permits and 253 certificates for the commissioning of new apartment buildings. In addition, over the past year, only half of the permit applications have been approved.
“The average annual ratio between permits and certificates is about 3 to 4, which is a rather low indicator in comparison with the international level and may indicate a slow pace of new housing construction in the future,” the National Bank said.
The China-Europe freight train with household goods, which departed from Guangzhou on May 29, arrived at the DP World TIS Pivdennyi unloading sea container terminal, the press service of the Ukrainian logistics company UNI-LAMAN GROUP, which is the initiator and organizer of this project, said on Tuesday night.
According to the operator, the train arrived on June 19, but the official welcoming ceremony took place on Tuesday, June 22. The trip from Guangzhou to Odessa region took 22 days. The train ran through China, Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine, through the customs posts Erlian – Zamyn-Üüd, Naushki – Sükhbaatar, Valuiki – Topoli, Chornomorska station – TIS and covered 8,408 km.
UNI-LAMAN GROUP said that this train transported fifty containers of cargo, including: furniture, electrical equipment and other goods.
“This train will help entrepreneurs receive goods from Guangdong and other southern provinces twice as fast, along with a similar delivery by sea. Today, we see a great demand for this route, so we do not want to be satisfied with what has already been achieved and will direct our efforts towards further fruitful cooperation with China to expand trade between our countries. By the end of the year, we plan to increase the number of these trains to ten per month and make regular trips from other provinces of China,” the press service said, citing UNI-LAMAN GROUP Board Chairman Hennadiy Sorochynsky.
The train will run on a regular schedule, which is included in the schedule of the state railway of China.
Electricity consumption in Ukraine, taking into account in-process losses in power grids, increased by 6.7% in January-May 2021 (by 4.163 billion kWh) compared to the same period in 2020, to 65.913 billion kWh, according to data from the Energy Ministry.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, excluding in-process losses, electricity consumption for the specified period increased by 8.2% (by 4.073 billion kWh), to 53.761 billion kWh.
The country’s industry, excluding in-process losses, boosted electricity consumption by 7.3%, to 21.709 billion kWh. In particular, metallurgical industry consumed 11.853 billion kWh (4.6% more compared to January-May 2020), the fuel industry some 1.397 billion kWh (3.9% more), machine-building industry some 1.612 billion kWh (18.7% more), chemical and petrochemical some 1.83 billion kWh (12.1% more), food and processing some 1.746 billion kWh (1% more), building materials some 1.025 billion kWh (22.5% more), others some 2.247 billion kWh (12.4% more).
In addition, agricultural enterprises consumed 1.445 billion kWh (0.9% more), transport some 2.619 million kWh (8.2% more), construction some 501.1 million kWh (23.8% more).
In January-May 2021, the country’s population consumed 17.469 billion kWh (7.5% more), households some 6.384 billion kWh (8.1% more), other non-industrial consumers some 3.635 billion (18.8% more).
According to the results of the first five months, the share of industry in the total volume of electricity consumption decreased from 40.7% to 40.4%, while the share of the population increased from 32.7% to 32.5%.
In May 2021, electricity consumption, taking into account in-process losses, increased by 3.1% (by 338 million kWh) compared to the same month of 2020, to 11.183 billion kWh, excluding in-process losses, by 9.6% (by 848.8 million kWh), to 9.713 billion kWh.
On Thursday, June 24, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, together with Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Davide Zalkaliani and acting Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova Aureliu Ciocoi will visit the EU institutions in Brussels for the first time with a joint visit in the format of the Associated Trio, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported.
According to the press service of the Foreign Ministry, in the information released Wednesday morning, the heads of the Ukrainian, Georgian and Moldovan diplomacy will present to the European Union a joint strategic vision of the further development of the trilateral format of the Associated Trio.
The key topics of the talks will be the European integration of the three countries, the possibility of further liberalization of trade relations, new promising areas of sectoral cooperation with the EU, in particular in the context of the implementation of the European Green Deal and the digital transition.
The parties will also coordinate their positions on security threats in the region and exchange views on preparations for the Eastern Partnership summit in December 2021.
Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova signed a memorandum on the establishment of the Associated Trio in Kyiv on May 17, 2021. The document underlines the European aspirations of the three associated partners of the EU and their ambitions to become members of the European Union. The Associated Trio is a trilateral format in which Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova coordinate their efforts towards European integration.
JSC Ukrtransnafta in June for the first time transported Algerian Saharan Blend crude oil, the press service of the company has reported
“After checking the quality indicators of crude oil, the company began accepting it into the oil transmission system for further transportation to the facilities of the Kremenchuk oil refinery. Algerian oil will be transported through the Odesa-Kremenchuk pipeline,” the press service said.
The press service recalled that in addition to pumping oil from Ukrainian fields, UTN now already has experience in transporting six grades of imported oil: Urals, Azeri Light, Bakken (since July 2019), El Sharara (since November 2019), WTI (since June 2020) and Saharan Blend.
New quality criteria and principles of hotel classification, developed by a working group under the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine, have already been submitted for public discussion, President of the Ukrainian Hotel & Resort Association (UHRA) Iryna Sidletska told Interfax-Ukraine at IV International Hospitality Conference, which took place on Friday, June 18.
“The complex process of creating new quality criteria and principles of hotel classification has lasted several months. The final text has been submitted for public discussion. After receiving public comments, the working group will consider them. By mid-July, we have a chance to receive updated hotel star standards under Cabinet of Ministers resolution No. 803,” Sidletska said.
According to the expert, when developing new quality criteria and hotel classification principles, the best practices of international and national systems, in particular, the Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Pubs and Cafes (HOTREC), Hotelstars Union, as well as ISO industry standards, were taken into account.
As reported, the commission for assigning stars to hotels resumed work on March 16, 2021, and 11 meetings were held during this period.
