The volume of housing construction in Ukraine depending on the region for the first quarter of 2021 increased by 10-20% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, General Director of the Finance and Investment Management Association (FIMA) Viktoria Volkovska has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We have analyzed dozens of housing objects working with the Construction Financing Funds. There is an increase in activity in all regions, the most noticeable in Lviv region, where the volume of construction work increased by more than 20%,” she said.
The FIMA study is based on an online survey of managers of Construction Financing Funds conducted in the first decade of April.
According to Volkovska, despite concerns, the New Year holidays, adaptive quarantine and, finally, lockdown did not have a significant negative impact on the construction and sales of housing in the country.
According to the survey, 40% of respondents reported an increase in the volume of construction work of more than 20%, some 10% of respondents noted 20% growth, and 20% – about 10% growth. Only 10% of respondents reported a drop to 10%.
“The level of sales in general did not change, although in some regions it showed an increase of 10%,” Volkovska said.
The Finance and Investment Management Association (FIMA) was established in May 2020 in connection with the entry into force of the law on amendments to certain legislative acts to improve the functions of public administration of financial services markets. It unites 37 companies-managers of Construction Financing Funds in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro and Kharkiv.
STRUCTURE OF EXPORT OF SERVICES For 9 months of 2020 (GRAPHICALLY)
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has for the first time defined the list of critical infrastructure facilities in the banking system, which includes 13 banks, the press service of the regulator said on Friday.
The list includes PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Ukrgasbank, Ukreximbank, Raiffeisen Bank Aval, FUIB, Alfa Bank, OTP Bank, TAScombank, Universal Bank, UkrSibbank (all are based in Kyiv), Pivdenny Bank (Odesa) and A-Bank (Dnipro).
The list was approved by NBU Board decision No. 148 dated April 20, 2021 on critical infrastructure facilities in the banking system of Ukraine.
The facilities of critical infrastructure include banks, the stable operation of which ensures the stability of the banking system, it is essential for the economy and security of the state, the functioning of society, and which are of significant public interest. In particular, these are banks that are included in the list of systemically important banks, and banks in which the state directly or indirectly owns more than 75% of their charter capital.
The Nova Poshta group of companies paid UAH 5 billion in taxes and fees to state and local budgets in 2020, which is 20% more than in 2019, the company’s press service said on Friday.
According to the press service, over the past year Nova Poshta rose from 27th to 19th place in the rating of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine.
Over the past three years, Nova Poshta has paid more than UAH 12 billion in taxes to the budgets of all levels and funds.
The press service said that the company operates within the framework of Ukrainian legislation, pays officially declared salaries to employees and provides them with medical insurance. In addition, Nova Poshta helps hospitals and socially vulnerable groups of the population.
“We do not stay away from life in Ukraine and actively help those who are in need: hospitals and universities, volunteers and socially vulnerable groups of the population. We care of what country we live and work in,” Chief Financial Officer of the group Petro Fokov said.
The Nova Poshta group of companies includes, in particular, the companies Nova Poshta, NP Logistic, NovaPay and Nova Poshta Global.
In 2019, the group transferred more than UAH 4 billion of taxes and fees to the Ukrainian budget.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in the first quarter has improved its forecast for growth in the unemployment rate this year to 9.1% compared to 10% in the January forecast, according to the central bank’s inflation report posted on its website on Thursday evening.
“This year, unemployment will decrease and on average per year it will be 9.1%. On the one hand, the recovery in economic activity will help normalize the indicator, on the other hand, the decline will be hampered by a significant increase in business costs for wages,” the NBU said in the report.
According to the National Bank, in 2022 the unemployment rate will drop to 8.5% and will remain at this level until the end of 2023.
The regulator expects that in 2021, nominal wages will grow by 17.8%, in 2022 – by 9.7%, and real wages next year will rise by 8.6%, in 2022 – by 3.9%.
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Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agrarian groups, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 (FY, began in July 2020), reduced sales of sunflower oil by 2% compared to the same period in the previous FY, to 371,920 tonnes.
According to a report posted on the company’s website on Friday, the share of bottled oil of total sales was 10% (37,000 tonnes).
Kernel processed 902,000 tonnes of oilseeds in Q3 FY2021, down 4% y-o-y due to the low harvest of sunflower seeds in Ukraine this season.
According to the report, grain export volume from Ukraine in January-March 2021 dropped 15% y-o-y, to 1.8 million tonnes, of which 1.3 million tonnes had been originated from external suppliers and the remaining had been produced by company’s farming division. Slowdown in the grain export volume was caused mostly by a substantial grain harvest reduction this season in Ukraine (including company’s farming operations) and the respective decline of the exportable grain surplus for the country.
The company’s export terminal throughput volume in Ukraine increased to 2.1 million tonnes in Q3 FY2021, up 6% y-o-y. Transshipment volume exceeded the grain export volume from Ukraine, as the company substantially increased the scale of sunflower meal transshipment operations on its terminals in Chornomorsk, with such goods being exported through third-party terminals before.
The holding cut grain and oilseeds received in inland silos by 12% in Q3 FY2021, to 109,021 tonnes.
Kernel in 9M FY2021 increased sales of sunflower oil by 6% compared to the same period in the previous FY, to 1.09 million tonnes, sunflower processing increased by 2%, to 2.57 million tonnes.
In 9M FY2021, grain exports from Ukraine grew by 5%, to 6.35 million tonnes.
According to the document, Export terminal’s throughput of the holding in Ukraine for 9M FY2021 grew by a third, to 6.31 million tonnes. During this period, the agricultural holding reduced grain and oilseeds received in inland silos by 9%, to 3.7 million tonnes.
Kernel is a large producer and exporter of sunflower oil. The largest co-owner of Kernel through Namsen Ltd. is Andriy Verevsky with a 39.16% share. Cascade Investment Fund (Cayman Islands), the beneficiary of which is the ex-deputy of the Ukrainian parliament Vitaliy Khomutynnik, owns 6.59% of Kernel’s shares.
