Economic experts predict a further decline in inflation in Germany in the second half of 2025. The main factors contributing to this are:
Lower energy prices
Stronger euro
Slower wage growth
Lower external demand due to trade tensions
Thus, inflation in Germany in January-May 2025 shows a steady downward trend, approaching the ECB’s target level. This creates the conditions for monetary policy easing and supports expectations of economic stability in the second half of the year.
Impact on monetary policy
The slowdown in inflation in Germany and other eurozone countries is strengthening expectations of interest rate cuts by the ECB. In May 2025, inflation in the eurozone stood at 2.1%, in line with the ECB‘s target.
The ECB is expected to decide at its meeting on June 4–5, 2025, to lower its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 2.0%. This will be the eighth rate cut since June 2024, when it stood at 4.0%.
The OKKO Group, which includes the operator of the eponymous network of gas filling stations, Concern Galnaftogaz, plans to have approximately 600 MW of wind power capacity over the next five years, 200 MW in solar energy, and 150 MW in energy storage facilities (ESF), according to Vasyl Danylyak, CEO of OKKO GROUP and co-founder of GORO Mountain Resort.
“In the energy sector, we see ourselves in about five years with approximately 600 MW in wind, 200 MW in solar, and about 150 MW in batteries. We have already accomplished some of these goals,” he said during a Forbes Ukraine Business Breakfast broadcast on his YouTube channel on Thursday.
He also added that in the agricultural sector, which is a very interesting business, the group sees its KPI (key performance indicator) as increasing efficiency per hectare.
At the same time, he denied the possible exit of the group’s fuel business to public capital markets, but suggested that this could be done to some extent for other areas of activity.
“We thought about the public capital market for our core business, retail. This is not possible now because the fuel business has become unfashionable and toxic for capital markets, banks, and MFIs. But if we are talking about other businesses, then most likely it will not be classic public capital markets, but perhaps specialized large funds operating in certain areas. This is more realistic,” said the CEO of OKKO.
As reported, the OKKO Group is building the 147 MW Ivanychi wind farm in the Volyn region with a total cost of EUR 225 million (excluding VAT) and is seeking financing for its second wind energy project in this region, the 192 MW Zatyrintsy wind farm, which is estimated at EUR 250 million (excluding VAT).
The group also won a five-year special auction held by NEC Ukrenergo for the provision of power system balancing services, at which it announced the installation of a 20 MW energy storage facility (ESF).
In addition, the group plans to open a new 60,000-tonne elevator by autumn 2025 and a bioethanol plant in summer 2026. An important component of OKKO’s agricultural portfolio is its partnership with Gadz-Agro in the Ternopil region, in which the company acquired a stake in 2023. The enterprise cultivates 26,000 hectares of land and has about 10,000 head of cattle, including 5,000 dairy cows. It is also one of the largest horticultural farms in Ukraine, but OKKO decided not to integrate the horticulture business into its operations.
OKKO Group unites more than 10 diverse businesses in the fields of manufacturing, trade, construction, insurance, services, and other services. The flagship company of the group is Galnaftogaz, which operates one of the largest gas station chains in Ukraine under the OKKO brand, with almost 400 gas stations.
The founder and ultimate beneficiary of the group is Vitaliy Antonov.
Scientists from the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture (KNUCA), together with partners, have begun implementing an international project to create new concrete mixtures using waste, in particular, destroyed structures, for construction using 3D printing and traditional methods, according to the KNUCA press service.
The release states that as part of the project “Development of new approaches and construction materials for the restoration of Ukraine’s damaged infrastructure with consideration for environmental sustainability,” researchers are developing a concrete mixture with the addition of materials resulting from the destruction of buildings and other industrial and agricultural waste.
The restoration of housing in Ukraine requires the introduction of universal rapid construction technologies that allow for the construction of sustainable and affordable buildings even in conditions of limited resources. Due to the war, many buildings in Ukraine have been destroyed. The remains of concrete structures can be effectively recycled and used for the construction of new housing. Compared to traditional construction methods, 3D printing of buildings can ensure faster construction rates, significantly less use of human resources, and savings in materials and energy.
The project is co-funded by the US Office of Naval Research and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The research is being conducted as part of the multilateral partnership initiative ” International Multilateral Partnership for Ensuring the Sustainability of the Education and Science System in Ukraine (IMPRESS-U),” initiated by the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) of the US National Science Foundation with the involvement of researchers from Stony Brook University in the US and the Jan and Jędrzej Śniadecki University of Technology in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The project will last two years. At KNUBA, the implementation of this project is entrusted to teachers, graduate students, and students of the Faculty of Construction and Technology, in particular, the Department of Building Materials and the Department of Building Structures and Products Technology.
Proposals for establishing marketing rules in the retail pharmaceutical market submitted by pharmaceutical manufacturers were not taken into account when developing the rules for marketing medicines. Instead, the interests of the pharmacy business were taken into account when preparing the draft rules, according to domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers.
The “rules of the game” in the pharmaceutical market are not set by the state, but by five non-public business groups of pharmacy chains that control over 70% of the market. The draft resolution on marketing dated May 14, 2025, proposed by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, provides for a ban on the provision of marketing services for prescription drugs and, at the same time, limits the income of pharmacies from marketing services to 12% of the total sales of drugs (including prescription drugs),” – according to a statement by the Association of Drug Manufacturers of Ukraine (ADMU) and the Association of Employers in the Medical and Microbiological Industry, sent to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Manufacturers emphasize that the proposed model contradicts the law and is clearly a blatant manipulation not in the interests of consumers and will lead to a 75% increase in retail prices of over-the-counter drugs to the distributor’s price.
Since over-the-counter drugs account for only 37% of the market, according to the associations, the percentage of the marketing payment in the price of an over-the-counter drug will exceed 40% of the manufacturer’s wholesale price. This is in addition to the 35% retail markup allowed by Ukrainian law. The real increase in the price of an over-the-counter drug at the pharmacy level for the consumer will be 75% of the distributor’s price, manufacturers emphasize.
“When the Ministry of Health of Ukraine approves a model of 12% marketing payment without specifying services, the result is not reform, but a 40% burden on the price of an over-the-counter drug. This is not a market mechanism, but a regressive tax on the poor: those who buy drugs without compensation pay the most,” the associations emphasize.
Manufacturers also note that the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on drug marketing in this version of the Ministry of Health does not specify the list of permitted marketing services aimed at consumers at the point of sale, as proposed by many participants in the public discussion, but instead introduces an unjustified payment in the form of a fixed percentage of the total volume of medicines sold by pharmacies.
“This approach is more like a ‘shelf space fee’ for manufacturers. Such a payment, without a fixed list of clear, transparent services based on the European model defined at the legislative level, has nothing to do with the manufacturer’s marketing activities and is in fact a form of systematic racketeering,” the manufacturers believe.
Domestic manufacturers emphasize that during the preparation of the draft order on the provision of marketing services, all discussions boiled down to the need to develop compensation for the decline in the profitability of the pharmacy business that existed before the state limited retail markups to 35%. “All meetings boiled down to discussions about the profitability of pharmacies. Patient needs were never discussed. This is an institutional mistake,” the associations say.
Domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers emphasize that the pharmacy market is oversaturated and degraded, with the number of pharmacies in Ukraine 2-3 times higher than European standards, and in large cities, there are three pharmacies “door to door” at almost every intersection. This number of pharmacies does not correspond to the actual number of pharmacists, as a result of which many pharmacies employ people without the appropriate education.
“Consumers and patients are being forced to buy unnecessary drugs from manufacturers who have agreed to pay marketing fees, while other manufacturers are simply being removed from the shelves. The “rules of the game” in the pharmaceutical market are set not by the state, but by five non-public business groups of pharmacy chains that control over 70% of the market. This is not a market — it is corporate dictatorship in the absence of state arbitration,” emphasize the leaders of the domestic pharmaceutical industry.
The associations note that today, a dirty information campaign has been launched against those manufacturers who have spoken out in favor of transparent pricing and in support of the Ukrainian president’s initiative, who have reduced the prices of their basic medicines by 30%. The medicines of these manufacturers have been effectively removed from the shelves of pharmacies belonging to the monopoly cartel.
These are the top five pharmacy chains in the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market. Pharmaceutical manufacturers remind us that in support of the initiative of the President of Ukraine and the government to ensure the availability of medicines, 32 leading domestic manufacturers of medicines have reduced the retail prices of the 303 most commonly used medicines
sold and available in pharmacies in Ukraine by 30% compared to the wholesale (list) prices in January 2025.
Domestic manufacturers note that 37% of the Ukrainian pharmacy market consists of over-the-counter drugs, most of which are purchased monthly by the same people.
“Today, vulnerable groups of citizens—the elderly, patients with chronic diseases, and residents of rural areas—were the first to feel the effects of opaque pharmacy policy. Manufacturers who reduced prices by 30% on more than 300 medicines were effectively “kicked out” of pharmacies. Their drugs disappeared from the shelves, leaving consumers with more expensive alternatives. This is not a market, this is discrimination against patients as the weakest link,” the manufacturers say.
Manufacturers insist on the adoption of the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on the provision of marketing and other services related to the sale of medicines to end consumers, published by the Ministry of Health on May 26, 2025, which limits marketing expenses depending on whether the medicine is available without a prescription or with one.
“The adoption of this draft will return the logic of the reform to its original meaning—protecting patients, rather than balancing the business interests of pharmacies and manufacturers. The focus is not on profits, but on health,” the manufacturers emphasized.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/news/pharmacy/1076084.html?utm_source=telegram
On Sunday, June 1, in the southeastern part of Ukraine, and during the day in Transcarpathia and Prykarpattia, moderate, in some places in the central, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions, short-term rains, in some places thunderstorms, according to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center.
The rest of the territory will be dry.
The wind will be westerly and northwesterly, 5-10 m/s.
The temperature at night will be 11-16°, during the day 22-27°. In the Carpathians, the temperature at night will be 5-10°, during the day 15-20°.
In Kyiv, no precipitation, northwesterly wind, 5-10 m/s. Temperature at night 14-16°, during the day 23-25°.
According to the Boris Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory, the highest daytime temperature in Kyiv on June 1 was recorded in 1979 and 2011 and amounted to 31.7°, the lowest nighttime temperature was 4.1° in 1904.
On Monday, June 2, there will be short-term rains and thunderstorms in Zakarpattia at night and in western, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia regions and in Crimea during the day. The rest of the territory will be dry.
The wind will be variable, 3-8 m/s.
The temperature at night will be 11-16°, during the day 22-27°. In the Carpathians, the temperature at night will be 6-11°, during the day 18-23°.
In Kyiv, there will be no precipitation, with winds of 3-8 m/s. The temperature at night will be 14-16°, during the day 25-27°.
US President Donald Trump has announced that tariffs on steel imports to the US will be increased by 50%, which is twice the current rate, CNN reports.
“We are going to increase tariffs on steel in the United States by 25%, from 25% to 50%,” he said during a speech at a US Steel plant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Trump added that he was considering a 40% tariff, but industry leaders told him they wanted a 50% tariff.
“At 25%, they can somehow get around this fence. At 50%, nobody will get around this fence,” the US president added.
He later wrote that tariffs on steel and aluminum would be increased to 50% starting Wednesday, June 4.
“I am honored to raise tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% starting Wednesday, June 4. Our steel and aluminum industries are reborn like never before. This will be another big boost of great news for our great steel and aluminum workers. Let’s make America great again!” he wrote.
Earlier, the Experts Club analytical center released a global analysis of steel production by the world’s leading countries. For more details, follow the link: https://youtube.com/shorts/VgUU9MEMosE?si=EZIE-o9jE0w2O9Z_
