Fitch Ratings has affirmed Ukraine’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B’ with a stable outlook, the agency said on its website.
Ukraine intends to increase the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) by 2025 to $15 billion per year, while at the end of 2020 their outflow amounted to $420 million, and in 2021 the National Bank predicts a recovery in FDI inflows at the level of $3 billion.
Ukraine in 2020 climbed from 80th to 63rd place in the Social Progress Index among 163 countries with score of 73.38 points versus 66.97 in 2019, according to the index data.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has revised its inflation forecast from 7% to 8% in 2021, expecting inflation to return to the 5% target in H1 2022.
The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-February 2021 decreased by 55.3% compared to January-February 2020, to $ 256.5 million from $ 573.2 million, the State Statistics Service has reported.
The growth of consumer prices in Ukraine in March 2021 accelerated year-over-year to 8.5% from 7.5% in February, from 6.1% in January and from 5% in December 2020.
The total public debt of Ukraine in March 2021 decreased in hryvnia by UAH 38.68 billion, to UAH 2.514 trillion, in dollars – by $ 1.24 billion, to $ 90.17 billion, the Ministry of Finance said.
Prices in the Ukrainian industry in March 2021 increased by 1.6%, while in February – by 7.8%, in January – by 5.2%, the State Statistics Service reported.
Industrial production in Ukraine in March 2021 increased by 2.1% compared to March 2020, which was the first month of the introduction of quarantine due to COVID-19, and the growth adjusted for the effect of calendar days was 2.4%, the State Statistics Service has said.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2020/2021 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of April 30, 2021 had exported 38.92 million tonnes of grains and legumes, which is 22.9% less than on the same date of the previous MY.
The transport enterprises of Ukraine in January-March 2021 reduce transportation of goods by 3.6% compared to the same period in 2020, to 135.3 million tonnes.
The volume of construction work performed in Ukraine in January-March 2021 decreased by 12.8% compared to the same period in 2020.
Retail turnover in Ukraine in 2020 increased by 12.7% compared to 2019, which is associated with significant growth in the e-commerce segment and high domestic demand.
Publisher of “Open4Business”, PhD in Economics, Maksim Urakin
The Austrian HEAD Group has begun construction of a plant for the production of equipment for winter sports on the territory of the industrial park Winter Sport in Vinnytsia, the start of which was postponed a year ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the website of Vinnytsia City Council said.
At the same time, it is specified that the commissioning of the new plant, which will be one of the largest plants of the HEAD Group, is scheduled for 2023, it is planned to create at least 1,200 jobs.
As reported, the total investment in the project is EUR 80 million, the area of production facilities for the production of skis, ski boots and bindings is 43,000 square meters.
The total area of the industrial park Winter Sport, where the enterprise will be built, is 25 hectares.
Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, at a meeting with the ambassadors of the G7 countries and the European Union, informed the diplomats about the progress of the corporate governance reform of state-owned companies, the press service of the head of state said on Thursday evening.
“The Head of the President’s Office invited the ambassadors and their countries to join the preparation of the draft law on improving corporate governance of legal entities, the shareholder of which is the state, which will ensure the implementation of modern international standards in Ukrainian legislation,” the message says.
In turn, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Yulia Svyrydenko noted that the goal is to clearly delineate the functions of the state as a shareholder and to prescribe transparent criteria for evaluating supervisory boards.
The reformatting of the juvenile prevention unit has begun in the National Police of Ukraine, the department of communication of the department reported on Thursday, May 13.
During the Ukraine 30 All-Ukrainian Forum, head of the National Police Ihor Klymenko said that now the department continues to recruit new personnel for the so-called “children’s police”, which will receive additional trainings from international partners. The police are also introducing two communication platforms in their work with children – “Children! Police! Society” and “Safe School”.
“We hope that international trainings and programs will significantly help police officers in working with children. We learn to communicate with children in the same language to recognize trouble even before it manifests itself. We have a common goal – to prevent crimes involving or against minors,” he said.
According to the head of the National Police, since the beginning of the year, the police have registered more than 1,200 crimes committed against children. In addition, more than 1,400 criminal offenses committed by children were recorded.
“There are 15,000 secondary schools in the state, several thousand colleges. We should know how children live, how they spend their free time, how they are brought up in a family,” Klymenko said.
Ukraine in 2020 climbed from 80th to 63rd place in the Social Progress Index among 163 countries with score of 73.38 points versus 66.97 in 2019, according to the index data.
“It is important that in the year of the pandemic, Ukraine improved its position in this global ranking. This means that at least part of the challenges we responded correctly,” Minister of Social Policy Maryna Lazebna told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the study, the average score of the index among all studied countries is 64.24 points. Last year, the group of countries with a very high standard of living and a moderately high quality of life narrowed from 104 to 71.
“I would also like to note that among 15 countries with a similar level of GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power parity, Ukraine ranked fifth in terms of this index,” Lazebna said.
In addition, the minister noted the high assessment of Ukraine in the areas of equal access for women and men to basic knowledge, protection of property rights for women, equality of political power by gender.
“Also, Ukraine has demonstrated high rates of vulnerable employment, secondary school attainment, availability of affordable mobile telephone subscriptions, access to electricity,” the head of the Ministry of Social Policy said.
However, Ukraine showed significantly worse results in comparison with other countries in terms of life expectancy at 60 years (117th place among 163 countries), and also lags behind in a number of other indicators.
“According to the results given by the authors of the index, Ukraine has high inequality of political power by socioeconomic position, corruption, high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, large number of outdoor air pollution attributable deaths, high number of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases,” Lazebna said.
The Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of its citizens. Fifty-four indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity to progress shows the relative performance of nations. Under the technical guidance of Professors Michael Porter from Harvard Business School and Scott Stern from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the group formed a U.S.-based nonprofit called the Social Progress Imperative and launched the Social Progress Index for 50 countries in 2013.
Quotes of interbank currency market of Ukraine (UAH for $1, IN 01.04.2021-30.04.2021)
