The work on the transfer of Israeli technologies related to smart alerts for missiles and drones to Ukraine is in progress, said the Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel Yevgeniy Korniychuk.
“Regarding the official things that we can comment – there is work on the transfer of Israeli technology related to smart alerts concerning missiles and drones. This technology is officially being transferred by the Israeli side. And I think that in a certain time we will receive it completely,” he said at a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine.
The Ambassador added that Ukraine still needs more active military-technical cooperation. However, according to him, there are many projects that cannot be commented on publicly yet.
“In order to have specifics on Iranian drones, I think it will take a few weeks. Since the government has just started work, it needs to make a decision taking into account the position of the U.S. as a major strategic partner, and the interests of the public,” the ambassador said.
He explained that the gap between the right-wing bloc that came to power and the left-wing forces is very small – 40 thousand voters, and the agenda is very much related to domestic politics, as well as the Palestinian question.
“So the issue of Ukraine is not a priority. Although we are trying with all our might to make it so,” Korniychuk added.
At the same time, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the issue of the war in Ukraine is a priority, said the Ukrainian diplomat.
“The minister said that he would facilitate more aid to Ukraine, without specifying it,” the ambassador said.
The average rate of new hryvnia deposits for households in December was 10.6% per annum, which is by 0.6 percentage points (p.p.) higher than in November and by 4.9 p.p. than in May, when the historical minimum was reached.
According to the information from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on its website, the rate on deposits in the national currency increased by 3.5 p.p. over 2022.
At the same time, the rate on loans in hryvnia to households in December remained at the level of November – 35.1% per annum, and for the year its growth was only 1.4 percentage points.
The rate on foreign currency deposits, which reached a historical low of 0.4% per annum in April, decreased from 0.7% to 0.6% in December, which may be associated with deposits for the purchase of foreign currency, the rate on which, as a rule, is close to zero.
As for the corporate sector, the rate on new hryvnia deposits in December increased by 0.8 p.p. – to 10.4%, while on foreign currency deposits it decreased by 0.1 p.p. – to 1.4% per annum.
The average rate of UAH loans to the corporate sector in December decreased by 0.7 p.p. – to 20.1%, whereas on foreign currency loans – by 0.2 p.p., to 5.2%.
During the year, hryvnia loans for corporate sector went up by 11 p.p., while currency loans went up by 1.1 p.p.
As earlier reported, on June 3, the NBU raised its key rate from 10% to 25%, in order to improve the attractiveness of the hryvnia, reduce pressure on international reserves and combat inflation, which totaled 26.6% for the year.
The National Bank expects that banks will also increase rates on deposits, and the Ministry of Finance – on OVGZ, while the increase in interest rates on loans will not be so significant. Since October, the Ministry of Finance raised rates on bonds with maturities of five to 24 months to 14-19.5% per annum, while in the secondary market they reach 20% per annum and higher.
Ukraine’s foreign trade deficit in goods in January-November 2022 increased 2.3 times compared to the same period in 2021, to $8.524 billion from $3.635 billion, the State Statistics Service said.
According to them, exports from Ukraine during this period compared to January-November 2021 decreased by 33.6% to $40.671 billion, imports – by 24.2% to $49.195 billion.
The State Statistics Committee specifies that seasonally adjusted exports decreased by 2.6% to $3.507 billion in November compared to October, while imports increased by 2.0% to $4.827 billion.
The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in November-2022 was negative at $1.319 billion, while in October-2022 it was also negative at $1.129 billion.
The coverage ratio of imports by exports in January-November 2022 was 0.83 (0.94 in January-November 2021).
The State Statistics Committee specified that foreign trade transactions were conducted with partners from 230 countries.
In January-September 2022, the international vertically integrated steel and railway company Interpipe cut its steel output by 36.3% year-on-year, to 463 thnd mt.
According to the presentation of the company results for the first nine months of last year, the output of pipes decreased by 30.2% to 309 thousand tons, railway products – by 49.6%, to 64 thousand tons.
In Q3-2022, steel output stood at 177 thnd mt (a 43.9% increase on Q2-2022), pipe output – at 105 thnd mt (a 4.5% decrease), railroad output – at 24 thnd mt (a 33.3% increase).
As previously reported, in 2021, Interpipe increased steel output by 28.1% compared to 2020 – up to 971 thousand tons, pipe output increased by 32.5% – to 614.8 thousand tons, while production of railway products decreased by 9.7% – to 172.1 thousand tons.
“Interpipe is a Ukrainian industrial company, which produces seamless pipes and railway wheels. The company supplies its products to over 80 countries all over the world through a network of commercial offices located in the key markets of the CIS, the Middle East, North America and Europe. In 2021, the company sold 602 thnd mt of tubes and 174 thnd mt of railroad products. The company sells its railroad products under the KLW brand.
There are about 10 thsd. employees in Interpipe.
The company consists of five industrial assets: “Interpipe Nizhnedneprovsky Tube Rolling Plant (NTZ)”, “Interpipe Novomoskovsk Tube Plant (NMTZ)”, “Interpipe Niko Tube”, “Interpipe Vtormet” and the electric steelmaking complex “Dneprosteel” under the brand name “Interpipe Steel”.
The ultimate owner of Interpipe Limited is Ukrainian businessman Viktor Pinchuk and his family members.
The Verkhovna Rada has postponed consideration of draft law No. 8067 on transforming NNEGC Energoatom into a joint stock company as a whole to the next plenary session, parliamentarian Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Golos faction) said.
“We began to consider #8067 – the transformation of Energoatom into a joint stock company as a whole. Started, but did not finish, as they delayed the amendments,” wrote Zheleznyak in the “Telegram Channel” on Friday.
According to the deputy, the vote for the law will already take place at the next plenary session.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on October 19, 2022 supported the first reading of the draft law № 8067 “On Joint Stock Company” National Nuclear Energy Generating Company “Energoatom”.
According to the explanatory note to the document, its goal is to establish the legal, economic and organizational basis for the establishment and operation of the joint stock company “National Atomic Energy Generating Company “Energoatom” by reorganizing (transforming) the state enterprise “NAEK “Energoatom”.
The document defines the procedure of formation and functioning of the joint stock company NAEK Energoatom, 100% of shares of which are owned by the state.
According to the document, the founder of the company is the state in the person of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which decides on the establishment of the company and manages the state corporate rights of the JSC.
It is stipulated that the shares acquired by the state as a result of the company’s formation are not subject to privatization.
Eight varieties of the covid strain “omikron” are currently circulating in Ukraine, a new strain has not yet been identified, Deputy Health Minister and Chief Sanitary Doctor Igor Kuzin said.
“Omicron is circulating mainly in Ukraine, eight of its varieties have been identified. We also monitor the situation with the emergence of a new strain, so far it has not been detected in Ukraine,” he said on the air of the telethon on Friday.
At the same time, commenting on testing for COVID-19, Kuzin noted that in regions where there are hostilities and a large number of airborne alarms, there are fewer tests,” he said.
According to Kuzin, there are currently about 2 million COVID-19 rapid tests in primary care facilities and “that’s an adequate residual.”
At the same time, predicting possible covid restrictions, Kuzin noted that all restrictions have been moved to advisory mode and “that’s the way it’s going to be.”
“Most areas look at the situation themselves and can make their own local decisions. They are mostly advisory. We can talk about applying local restrictive and recommendatory rules,” he said.
