National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 17/06/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Ukraine has canceled special restrictions on entry into the country from India, introduced on May 2 this year due to the widespread of COVID-19 in this country. Resolution No. 611 dated June 16 was published in the Uryadovy Kurier newspaper on Thursday.
Since May 2, a complete ban was introduced on the crossing of the Ukrainian border by foreigners and stateless persons who arrived from India or stayed on its territory for at least seven days over the past 14 days.
An exception was made only for citizens of Ukraine and foreigners who permanently or temporarily reside in the territory of Ukraine, who are spouses or children of citizens of Ukraine, for whom the requirement of mandatory self-isolation was established, regardless of the presence and result of PCR testing. However, now this requirement has also been annulled.
The fall in the gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020 accelerated to 2% from 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020, the State Statistics Service said.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) plans to achieve an increase in the volume of net bank loans to business entities and individuals in relation to GDP at the level of 22% in 2024, which is 8.1 percentage points more than as of 2020 (13.9%).
The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine worsened expectations of real GDP growth in the updated macro forecast from 4.6% to 4.1% in 2021, from 4.3% to 3.8% in 2022, ex-Minister Ihor Petrashko said.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-March 2021 expanded by 1.4% compared to January-March 2020, to $1.315 billion from $1.296 billion.
Consumer prices in Ukraine at the end of April 2021 year-over-year slowed down from 8.5% to 8.4% at the end of March.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) plans to achieve an increase in the volume of net bank loans to business entities and individuals in relation to GDP at the level of 22% in 2024, which is 8.1 percentage points more than as of 2020 (13.9%).
The balances on the government’s foreign currency Single Treasury Account (STA) as of May 5, 2021 amounted to $1.6 billion, head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Bohdan Danylyshyn said.
The total public debt of Ukraine in April 2021 increased by 1.29% in U.S. dollars to $91.33 billion and by 0.8% in hryvnias, to UAH 2.534 trillion, according to data on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
Prices in the Ukrainian industry in April 2021 grew by 1.2%, while in March – by 1.6%, in February – by 7.8%, in January – by 5.2%.
Industrial production in Ukraine in April 2021 increased by 13% compared to April 2020, while in March the growth was 2.1%, in February and January – a fall of 4.6% and 4%, respectively.
The retail trade turnover of Ukraine in April 2021 compared to the same month in 2020 in comparable prices increased 34.3%, while in March it grew by 13.1%.
From October 2021, the Irish airline Ryanair will launch flights from Kyiv to Turin (Italy) as part of the winter schedule.
As the company’s press service said on Wednesday evening, the flights will be operated twice a week.
At the same time, due to regular changes in restrictions in connection with the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, clients can postpone or change travel dates up to two times with zero commission until the end of December 2021, Sales and Marketing Manager for Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans at Ryanair Olga Pawlonka is quoted as saying in the press release.
There are currently no direct flights from Kyiv to Turin.
The volume of mortgage lending in April 2021 amounted to UAH 789.1 million, which is a third more than in March and 10 times more than in April 2020, when the issuance of new mortgage loans almost stopped, according to the results of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) survey of banks.
According to the NBU on Wednesday, 997 agreements were concluded in April, which is a third more than last month and 7.1 times more than in April last year.
The NBU noted that in general, over the four months, banks issued 2,808 mortgage loans totaling UAH 2.2 billion, which is 2 times more in terms of the number of agreements and almost 3 times more in monetary terms compared to the corresponding period last year.
According to the survey, 90% of mortgage agreements in April were drawn up with five banks, which indicates the concentration of the mortgage lending market.
The NBU said that in April, the volume of loan issuance for the purchase of primary real estate increased by 1.5 times, to UAH 43.2 million, and secondary real estate – by a third, to UAH 168.5 million.
According to the results, the secondary housing market continues to dominate significantly in terms of the number and volume of lending, in particular, the share of mortgage agreements for the purchase of housing in the secondary market in February amounted to about 87% in terms of all new loans.
It is indicated that the average amount of a loan for the purchase of housing continues to grow and in April it amounted to UAH 791,000, including the average amount of a new mortgage loan for the purchase of primary real estate in the reporting month amounted to UAH 925,000, and secondary real estate – UAH 771,000.
According to the central bank, in April the average effective rate of a mortgage loan in the secondary market fell to 13.5% compared to 14.0% in March, and in the primary market it remained at about 17.4%.
Ukraine in January-May of this year increased imports of aluminum ores and concentrate (bauxite) in kind by 12.3% compared to the same period last year, to 2.185 million tonnes.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service on Tuesday, during this period, imports of bauxite in monetary terms increased 16.8%, to $99.393 million.
At the same time, aluminum ores were mainly imported from Guinea (60.15% of supplies in monetary terms), as well as from Brazil (22.26%) and Ghana (16.31%).
Ukraine in January-May 2021 re-exported bauxite in the amount of 94 tonnes for the tune of $19,000 to Poland (84.21%) and Germany (15.79%).
