Fitch Ratings has affirmed Ukraine’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B’ with a stable outlook, the agency said on its website.
Ukraine intends to increase the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) by 2025 to $15 billion per year, while at the end of 2020 their outflow amounted to $420 million, and in 2021 the National Bank predicts a recovery in FDI inflows at the level of $3 billion.
Ukraine in 2020 climbed from 80th to 63rd place in the Social Progress Index among 163 countries with score of 73.38 points versus 66.97 in 2019, according to the index data.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has revised its inflation forecast from 7% to 8% in 2021, expecting inflation to return to the 5% target in H1 2022.
The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-February 2021 decreased by 55.3% compared to January-February 2020, to $ 256.5 million from $ 573.2 million, the State Statistics Service has reported.
The growth of consumer prices in Ukraine in March 2021 accelerated year-over-year to 8.5% from 7.5% in February, from 6.1% in January and from 5% in December 2020.
The total public debt of Ukraine in March 2021 decreased in hryvnia by UAH 38.68 billion, to UAH 2.514 trillion, in dollars – by $ 1.24 billion, to $ 90.17 billion, the Ministry of Finance said.
Prices in the Ukrainian industry in March 2021 increased by 1.6%, while in February – by 7.8%, in January – by 5.2%, the State Statistics Service reported.
Industrial production in Ukraine in March 2021 increased by 2.1% compared to March 2020, which was the first month of the introduction of quarantine due to COVID-19, and the growth adjusted for the effect of calendar days was 2.4%, the State Statistics Service has said.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2020/2021 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of April 30, 2021 had exported 38.92 million tonnes of grains and legumes, which is 22.9% less than on the same date of the previous MY.
The transport enterprises of Ukraine in January-March 2021 reduce transportation of goods by 3.6% compared to the same period in 2020, to 135.3 million tonnes.
The volume of construction work performed in Ukraine in January-March 2021 decreased by 12.8% compared to the same period in 2020.
Retail turnover in Ukraine in 2020 increased by 12.7% compared to 2019, which is associated with significant growth in the e-commerce segment and high domestic demand.
Publisher of “Open4Business”, PhD in Economics, Maksim Urakin
