The National Bank of Ukraine’s net profit in the second quarter of this year amounted to UAH 17.59 billion, up 22.2% year-on-year, according to the NBU’s report on its website.
According to the report, net interest income almost halved to UAH 10.53 billion from UAH 20.70 billion, but UAH 7.69 billion of profit from transactions with financial instruments at fair value, compared to UAH 4.26 billion of loss in the second quarter of last year, improved the financial result overall.
In the first half of the year, the NBU’s net profit amounted to UAH 43.28 billion, down 37.9% compared to the first half of last year, when this result was largely due to UAH 48.82 billion of profit from operations with financial assets and liabilities in foreign currency and gold, compared to UAH 7.74 billion in the first half of this year.
According to the NBU, its consolidated assets increased by 17.1% to UAH 2.293 trillion in January-June this year. “The change in the volume of assets is primarily the result of a 37% increase in international reserves – to $39.0 billion at the end of the first half of 2023 from $28.5 billion at the end of 2022,” the central bank explained.
He specified that the volume of non-resident securities in its portfolio in the first half of 2023 increased by 23% to UAH 858.5 billion, and the volume of funds and deposits in foreign currency and precious metals almost doubled to UAH 464.4 billion.
At the same time, the lion’s share – almost 98% – of non-resident securities is denominated in US dollars, including 92.8% of US issuers, while at the beginning of the year these figures were 95.3% and 84.0%, respectively.
During the reporting period, the NBU, in particular, got rid of securities denominated in euros, which amounted to 1.5% of the portfolio at the beginning of the year.
At the same time, the NBU notes that the volume of its loan portfolio decreased by 4.7 times to UAH 8.6 billion due to the repayment of long-term debt on operating loans by banks.
As of the end of the first half of 2023, the NBU’s liabilities amounted to UAH 1.921 trillion (83.8% of assets), up 17.8% over the half-year.
In particular, banks’ funds increased by 2.3 times to UAH 203.8 billion, funds of state and other institutions increased almost sixfold to UAH 311 billion, while liabilities on loans received from the IMF decreased by 21.5%, and in August the NBU repaid another SDR98.5 million.
As a result, the NBU’s equity increased by 13% to UAH 371 billion in the first half of 2023, due to the accumulation of this year’s profit.
The NBU indicated that its expenses related to the production of banknotes, coins and other products, administrative expenses, and staff costs in the first half of 2023 remained at the same level as in the corresponding period of 2022 and amounted to UAH 3 billion.
In particular, staff salaries decreased by 7.7% year-on-year to UAH 1.227 billion in the first half of this year, including an 8.9% decrease to UAH 612 million in the second quarter.
At the same time, payments to the management increased by 11.1% to UAH 36.01 million, including 10.5% to UAH 13.54 million for members of the NBU Council.
Despite a 20% reduction in crop production areas due to the occupation of a number of regions, favorable weather conditions will allow farmers to harvest and export wheat in the 2023/24 marketing year (MY) no less than last season, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky said on the air of the United News marathon.
“The carry-over stocks of crops in 2023 are about five times less than in the 2022 season, when there were 27 million tons of agricultural products in the country as of mid-summer. On average, agriculture has been bringing in about USD2 billion a month to the state budget since the grain corridor started working properly,” he said.
Assessing the prospects for the 2023 harvest, the Minister noted that this season, 20% less production area has been allocated for crops than in pre-war 2021, due to the areas in Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and the south of the country that are currently under occupation. He also clarified that during the fall 2022 sowing campaign, winter crops were sown 25% less than in 2021.
“Thanks to the weather, we got a significantly higher yield on these areas. It was not a harsh winter, there were no sharp temperature drops, and there was enough humidity, which led to the increase in yield. It was difficult for farmers to save on seeds, herbicides, and fertilizers. But one factor compensated for the other,” explained Solsky.
Speaking about this season’s spring crop harvest, the Minister emphasized that a combination of natural and climatic factors, including a wet summer and average temperatures, affected the quality of grain, which will be worse than last season.
“We have less milling wheat and more feed wheat. But this is a standard situation for Ukraine, when the season depends primarily on weather conditions,” said the head of the agriculture ministry.
According to him, the tonnage of wheat for export to Ukraine in 2023/24 MY will be not less than last season.
Assessing the readiness of the agricultural business for the autumn-winter period, Solsky reminded that since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has been receiving many donor programs, some of which were implemented through the Ministry of Agrarian Policy. Therefore, the supply of generators, in particular, is many times higher than at the beginning of winter last year.
According to the Minister, gas will be the main challenge for business in the autumn and winter period. A positive factor was its low cost in 2022/23 MY, which was several times lower than before the war. However, in the last few weeks, the price has risen, which will affect the operation of elevators, Solsky explained. However, this factor, in his opinion, will also depend on the weather and the skill of entrepreneurs.
“When we talk about grains, the demand for gas (for the agricultural sector) will depend on the conditions under which corn will be harvested. It will be a wet autumn or not,” the minister said, adding that many farmers are now actively advancing and buying gas.
He stated that there are no gas subsidies for business, as the priority is to provide gas to the population. However, the situation will become clearer in late October and early November, and the agricultural market is preparing for it.
Benchmark oil prices are little changed on Thursday morning after declines in the previous three sessions.
The price of October Brent futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange is at $83.2 per barrel by 8:09 a.m. Q4, down 1 cent (0.01%) from the previous session’s close. On Wednesday, these contracts fell in price by $0.82 (1%) – to $83.21 per barrel.
Quotes of futures for WTI crude oil for October at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by the specified time decreased by 5 cents (0.06%) and amounted to $78.84 per barrel. At the end of the last session they fell by $0.75 (0.9%) – to $78.89 per barrel.
The day before, Brent ended trading at the lowest since August 2, WTI – since July 26.
Commercial oil inventories in the U.S. last week decreased by 6.13 million barrels, according to the weekly report of the country’s Energy Department. Experts surveyed by Bloomberg expected a decrease in oil reserves by 3 million barrels.
Meanwhile, commercial reserves of gasoline increased by 1.47 million barrels, distillates – increased by 945 thousand barrels. Analysts predicted a decrease in gasoline reserves by 481 thousand barrels and an increase in distillate reserves by 698 thousand barrels.
Inventories at the Cushing terminal, where NYMEX-traded crude is stored, fell 3.13 million barrels after dropping 837,000 barrels a week earlier.
“The data pointed to a sharp drop in oil inventories overall and also at the Cushing terminal,” Tariq Zahir, managing partner at Tyche Capital Advisors, told MarketWatch. According to him, the decline in quotations observed in recent days may be replaced by growth amid production cuts in Saudi Arabia and storm activity in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Verkhovna Rada has passed in the second reading and as a whole the law “On state regulation of genetically engineered activities and state control over the placement of genetically modified organisms and products on the market”.
The corresponding bill №5839 was supported by 276 people’s deputies at the plenary session on Wednesday, a member of the faction “Golos” Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported in Telegram.
According to the explanatory note, the document defines the legal and organizational basis for the state regulation of genetically engineered activities, ensuring environmental, genetic, food and biological security of the state and state control over the placement of genetically modified organisms and products on the market.
It defines the terms “genetically modified organism”, “genetically modified products”, “GM products as a food product”, introduces state registration of GMOs, etc.
Before the law was adopted in the second reading, it was amended to prohibit the cultivation and import of GM corn, as well as the cultivation of genetically modified sugar beets and rapeseed for five years.
The document introduces a comprehensive regulation of the legal and organizational foundations of genetically engineered activities by means of state supervision (control) over the use of genetically modified organisms and the turnover of GM products.
The bill also delimits the powers of state authorities to avoid duplication of functions in the sphere of GMO handling; improves the system of GMO risk assessment with regard to possible impact on human health and the natural environment; introduces European mechanisms for state registration of GMOs; improves requirements for labeling of GM products and introduces rules for their traceability; strengthens state control in the sphere of GMO handling and establishes liability for violation of legislation in this sphere.
Finland will provide Ukraine with the next 18th defense aid package by the end of the week, it will include heavy weapons and ammunition, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has said.
“Finland has already provided Ukraine with 1.7 billion euros in aid… We are now preparing the next 18th aid package. It will include heavy weapons, ammunition… We should deliver finally at the end of this week. This is a very good package. It contains very necessary materials,” Orpo said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev.
Answering journalists’ questions whether Finnish high technologies would be available to Ukraine and whether there was anything concrete that Finland could offer, the prime minister said he had discussed the issue with Zelensky and called it “a good idea.”
“We discussed this issue with the president. Last week we saw that a Swedish company signed a cooperation agreement with Ukraine. We discussed that there are high-tech companies in Finland, that they could engage in cooperation to manufacture something together. I think we have something to do. We have experience. So it’s a good idea,” he said.
In turn, Zelensky said that Ukraine is extremely interested in Finnish armored personnel carriers.
“We would like to manufacture them together – in Ukraine. We discussed this with the Prime Minister. He very rightly said that we concluded a memorandum on the production of CV-90. But we need more. And during the war and after the war Ukraine will need to remain strong in order not to give Russia any opportunity to think about the second wave of aggression against us. That’s why we need to produce more. That is why we wanted and want to organize this Defense Industries Forum,” the Ukrainian president said.
The Vikram lander of India’s Chandrayaan-3 Automated Interplanetary Station (Chandrayaan-3), which landed on the Moon on Wednesday, has successfully established communication with the Mission Control Center in Bangalore, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) reported.
“Communication has been established between the Chandrayaan-3 lander and the MOX-ISTRAC (Mission Operations Center for Telemetry, Surveillance and Control) located in Bangalore,” the organization said in a statement.
The landing was made at 18:02 Indian time (15:32 sq. m.) in the area of the unexplored South Pole of the Moon.
Thus, India became the fourth country after the USSR, the United States and China to land its own vehicle on the Moon.
The LVM3 rocket with the Chandrayaan-3 automatic interplanetary station was launched on July 14 from the launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Center, located on the island of Sriharikota. On August 5, the station was launched into lunar orbit.
After the landing, the Pragyan lunar rover, equipped with various research equipment, will move off the platform and begin chemical analysis of the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite. The mission of the 20 kg lunar rover is designed for 14 Earth days.
The previous attempt to send a lander and lunar rover to the Moon was made in 2019 as part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission. Then the orbiter managed to enter lunar orbit, but due to communication problems, specialists were unable to correct the lunar position of the lander, which separated from the interplanetary station and crashed into the lunar surface.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission orbiter remained in orbit and continues to collect scientific data about the Earth’s natural satellite. Chandrayaan-3 does not include such a mission.
