The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has left unchanged its forecast for Ukrainian economy growth in 2018 at 3% and expects that the same pace would be retained in 2019, the bank has said in a survey on its website. The bank said that large foreign exchange debt repayments by the public sector falling due in 2018-20 and the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections cycle in 2019 represent important risks to the growth outlook.
Continuation of the IMF (the International Monetary Fund) programme is uncertain due to the lacking commitment on the part of the authorities to meet key reform requirements, the bank said.
The EBRD said that the growth of Ukrainian economy remains subdued.
As reported, the World Bank remained unchanged its forecast for Ukraine’s GDP growth in 2018-2019 at 3.5% and 4% respectively.
However, the bank said that if reforms are delayed, growth could drop below current levels in an uncertain macroeconomic environment as financing risks rapidly increase and GDP growth could slow to 2%.
The IMF retained its forecast for Ukraine’s GDP growth in 2018 at 3.2%, while it reviewed downwards the forecast for 2019 to 3.3% from 4%.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) predicts that Ukraine’s GDP would accelerate in 2018 to 3.4% from 2.5% in 2017 and slow to 2.9% in 2019-2020.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The Ukrainian government at a meeting on May 10 is to approve a list of largest facilities for privatization in 2018, which will launch the process of preparation of them for privatization which could start at the end of this autumn, acting Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) Vitaliy Trubarov has said. “If we have the timing of all the procedures in a single thread, then we get actual privatization – this is the end of the autumn, relatively speaking, from the middle of October through December,” he said on Channel 5 TV.
Trubarov said that the SPF as soon as possible after the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers will launch all the required procedures, including selection of advisers.
“There is a danger that the procedures that we will launch this year will not be finished before the end of the year. We will transfer some of the facilities to the beginning of 2019,” he said.
Answering the question about the term of the privatization of the Odesa Port-Side Plant, which tenders in 2017 ended twice as a failure, Trubarov called this facility “the most problematic” and urged not to hurry with a new attempt of selling it because of the unsolved debt problem. “The most important problem is its debts, which are fixed by the court decision. Unfortunately, at the moment we are just approaching the decision together with our international advisors to the issue related to the possibility of debt restructuring,” he said. “So far we have not found a solution to what to do with the debt. We do not need to put it up for sale now. We still have time, in this situation it is better not to rush,” the head of the SPF said.
Public joint-stock company Farmak, the pharmaceutical company of Ukraine of the top three largest companies in the country, is mulling the possibility of acquiring a pharmaceutical company in Europe, acting CEO Volodymyr Kostiuk has said. “Now we are looking for a company which could be bought,” he told reporters.
Kostiuk said that this is the acquisition of an industrial company or a company with a product portfolio in Europe.
“Poland was the first step. Now we are looking at Hungary and Croatia. There is a concrete targeted profile. We are trying to meet it and select companies-candidates,” he said.
Kostiuk said that Farmak does not set the terms for acquiring the company and behaves thoughtfully regarding the cost of the asset.
“We are not in a hurry. We want to find the company that meets our plans as fully as possible,” he said.
In turn, Farmak Technical Director Andriy Hoi did not rule out that production of cancer treating medicines will be organized at the facilities of Farmak.
“These are very expensive medicines. They have a high production cost. These are highly active medications. Having several cancer treating medicines in our portfolio, including from post-Soviet solutions, we are working with leading Western companies regarding the localization of production of these medicines. We are thinking on starting a separate production line in the medium term outlook and a separate line of highly active medications,” he said.
Ukraine in January-April 2018 increased exports of steel-making pig iron in natural terms by 87.7% compared to the same period last year, to 1.023 million tonnes.
According to customs statistics released by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, during this period exports of pig iron in monetary terms increased by 2.2 times, to $339.946 million.
At the same time, exports were mainly carried out to the United States (47.66% of deliveries in monetary terms), Italy (19.33%), and Turkey (10.94%).
Ukraine in January-April 2018 imported 414 tonnes of similar products for $256,000, whereas in January-April 2017 some 1,022 tonnes for $522,000. Imports were carried out from Russia (67.97% of deliveries in monetary terms), and Germany (32.03%).
