The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved $1.3 billion in emergency financial support for Ukraine under the new Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) food shock window to meet Ukraine’s urgent balance of payments needs.
“More than seven months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, humanitarian and economic losses remain enormous, leading to large and urgent fiscal and external financing needs,” the IMF said on its website on Saturday night.
The IMF points out that the scale and intensity of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began more than seven months ago, has caused enormous human suffering and economic damage. With massive population displacement and destruction of housing and basic infrastructure, Ukraine’s real GDP is projected to contract by 35% in 2022 compared to 2021, and financing needs remain very large.
“This RFI payment (equivalent to 50% of Ukraine’s IMF quota) will help meet the urgent needs of the balance of payments, including due to a large reduction in grain exports, and will also play the role of a catalyst for further financial support from Ukraine’s creditors and donors,” the Fund stressed.
The IMF noted that the Ukrainian authorities are to be commended for maintaining largely macro-financial stability in these extremely challenging circumstances and have requested board-level monitoring of the program to bolster their policy commitment and further galvanize donor support.
Ukraine has joined the countries of the European Union that have an approved national plan for the implementation of the principles of open science, the Ministry of Education and Science reports.
“The Government has approved the Decree “On the Approval of the National Plan for Open Science”. The document is the next step towards the integration of Ukraine into the European Research Area,” the press service of the ministry said in a statement.
It is noted that the implementation of the plan will ensure the implementation of the Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, on the other hand, on Ukraine’s participation in the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Framework and the European Community Research and Training Program on Atomic Energy. Energy (2021 – 2025), complementary to the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Framework.
It is expected that the subsequent implementation of the national plan for open science will create: regulatory and legal prerequisites for the formation of the state policy of open science; provide interested parties with open access to devices, tools and other means of obtaining a scientific result; will ensure the processing of scientific data, taking into account the principles of FAIR (a set of principles for the visibility, accessibility, compatibility and reuse of scientific data); will contribute to the acceleration of the circulation of scientific information, will provide access to relevant scientific information without discrimination; create conditions for more efficient use of the results of research and development carried out with the involvement of budgetary funds; will make the scientific and educational space more transparent.
Tourist tax in Kyiv for January-September 2022 amounted to UAH 47 million 360.9 thousand.
As Oleksandr Prokopenko, Deputy Director of the Department of Finance of the Kyiv City State Administration, told Interfax-Ukraine, for the same period in 2021, the tourist tax in the capital amounted to UAH 31 million 411.7 thousand. Thus, he noted, despite the war in the country, this figure is growing.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) notes the presence of a number of factors on the market that contribute to the improvement of the price situation, and may reduce the inflation forecast for the current year, which was set at 31% in July, said Deputy Head of the NBU Serhiy Nikolaychuk.
Our last forecast for July (inflation) is about 30%, next year it will be about 20%. The risks are down: most likely, it will be revised (inflation forecast) a little lower, but not significantly,” he said at the Forbes conference “Without rose-colored glasses. Business and the state during the war” on Thursday.
Nikolaychuk explained that this was due, in particular, to the improvement in the situation with the supply of vegetables and fruits.
He added that fuel prices fell more than the National Bank expected, which is also related to logistics.
“The situation with the opening of ports also gives more reasons that there will be no large exchange rate fluctuations,” the deputy head of the National Bank said.
He also noted that in the July forecast, the National Bank included the introduction of an additional import duty and a higher excise tax on fuel, but these measures were not implemented, and this is also an additional deterrent effect on prices.
“Next year, the main disinflationary factor is the improvement in the ability of Ukrainian businesses to increase agricultural production, and logistics capabilities will improve,” Nikolaychuk said.
As reported, consumer price growth in Ukraine in August 2022 accelerated to 1.1% from 0.7% in July, and in annual terms, in August this year, inflation rose to 23.8% from 22.2% in July and 21.5% in June.
As reported, in 2021 inflation in Ukraine rose to 10% from 5% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2019, while core inflation rose to 7.9% against 4.5% a year earlier.
The NBU predicted an acceleration of inflation this year to 31%, including up to 25.6% in the third quarter.
Passenger flow through the western border of Ukraine in June 2022, thousand (graphically)
Data: State Border Service, graphics of the Club of Experts
State-owned PrivatBank and Oschadbank topped the list of 43 profitable banks in August with net profits of UAH 3.21 billion and UAH 2.85 billion, respectively.
According to the data published by the National Bank of Ukraine on its website, they worked with a profit despite the formation of an additional UAH 7.71 billion and UAH 0.62 billion in reserves, respectively.
The main reason for such a significant profit of both state-owned banks was the result obtained in August from operations with financial assets and liabilities – UAH 7.49 billion and UAH 2.95 billion, respectively.
In addition, in August, PrivatBank showed an increase in total assets by UAH 14.95 billion, and Oschadbank – by UAH 8.22 billion, while the assets of the state-owned Ukreximbank immediately decreased by UAH 31.23 billion, which is probably due to the government receiving through it part of external financing and its spending.
Among other leaders in terms of profit in August were UkrSibbank – UAH 625.0 million, Citibank – UAH 444.4 million, Raiffeisen Bank – UAH 267.7 million, Universal Bank (monobank) – UAH 210.7 million, Ukrgasbank – UAH 143.0 UAH million and OTP Bank – UAH 131.4 million.
Alfa-Bank and the state-owned Ukreximbank showed the largest losses in August – UAH 1.357 billion and UAH 1.103 billion, respectively. During the month, these banks formed additional reserves of UAH 1.674 billion and UAH 0.776 billion, respectively. In addition, Alfa-Bank lost another UAH 1.51 billion of total assets in August.
Credit-Dnepr Bank – UAH 181.8 million, Idea Bank – UAH 110.7 million, Globus Bank and Kredobank – UAH 87 million and UAH 86 million, respectively, were also unprofitable.
According to the results of eight months of this year, PrivatBank remains the most profitable – UAH 14.15 billion, and Oschadbank took the second place due to the August result – UAH 2.34 billion.
Next come three banks with foreign capital: Raiffeisen Bank – UAH 1.87 billion, UkrSibbank – UAH 1.7 billion and Citibank – UAH 1.12 billion, followed by two private Ukrainian banks: Universal Bank – UAH 0.65 billion and Bank “Pivdenny” – UAH 0.34 billion.
The largest losses in January-August were shown by Alfa-Bank – UAH 4.88 billion and two state-owned banks: Ukreximbank – UAH 4.41 billion and Ukrgasbank – UAH 3.40 billion.
Rounding out the top five unprofitable are two banks with foreign capital: ProCredit Bank – UAH 1.29 billion and OTP Bank – UAH 0.44 billion.
In general, over the eight months of this year, 42 banks operated with a net profit, while 25 – with a net loss.
The total net profit of all banks amounted to UAH 8.43 billion, including UAH 5.1 billion in August, but excluding PrivatBank and Oschadbank, the financial result of the banking system will be negative – UAH 8.05 billion and UAH 0.95 billion, respectively.
According to the data of the National Bank, in August, the portfolios of government bonds of all banks decreased, most of all – Oschadbank: by UAH 3.05 billion, while Universal Bank – by UAH 1.99 billion, FUIB – by UAH 1.73 billion. In total, the banking portfolio of government bonds in August decreased by UAH 23.83 billion.
