The simplified travel regime for citizens of Ukraine and Uruguay entered into force on Friday, the Ukrainian Embassy to Argentina has reported. “From now on, the period of stay without a visa allowed on the territory of Uruguay will be 90 days, it can be renewed for a second term of 90 days,” the Embassy said on Facebook.
One should have a valid passport document of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling abroad, seafarer’s identity card or identity card for return to Ukraine (in case of loss of passport abroad and return to Ukraine) for a visa-free trip to Uruguay, it says.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in 2018 grew by 54.5% compared with 2017, to $9.801 billion (to $6.343 billion in 2017), the State Statistics Service said on Thursday. In 2018, exports of goods increased by 9.4%, or $4.073 billion, compared to 2017, to $47.340 billion, while imports rose by 15.2%, or $7.542 billion, to $57.141 billion.
The ratio of coverage of imports by exports was 0.83 (0.87 in 2017).
The State Statistics Service specified that foreign trade operations were conducted with partners from 221 countries of the world.
Average retail prices for petrol and diesel fuel in Ukraine in the period from February 8 to February 15, 2019, fell by 0.18-0.40%, while prices of LPG fell by 3.04%, according to data from the A-95 Consulting Group (Kyiv).
Changes in average retail fuel prices UAH per liter in Ukraine:
©Source: A-95 Consulting Company
The amount of money transfers to Ukraine using international payment systems in 2018 was eight times more than the sum of money sent from Ukraine.
According to a posting on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the share of transfers in money transfer systems to Ukraine was 17% from the United States, 13% from Israel, 9% from Russia, 8% from Italy, 7% from Poland, and 46% from other countries (221 countries).
In 2018, both residents and nonresidents used money transfer systems to transact the following transfers: $2.301 billion in equivalent to Ukraine (28.28% of total transfers); $294 million in equivalent abroad (3.61% of total transfers) and UAH 150.53 billion or $5.541 billion in equivalent within Ukraine (68.11% of the total value of transfers).
These data do not include information on transfers transacted by banks, card payment schemes and post offices.
Domestic transfers in money transfer systems over 2018 has increased by 24.3% year-over-year (in 2017 domestic transfers accounted for over UAH 120.5 billion or $4.456 billion in equivalent). Most of domestic transfers (92%) are transacted in systems established by nonbank institutions.
Kness Group, a large EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor in Ukraine, has launched first own solar power plants with a total power capacity of 33 MW, Director General of the group Serhiy Shakalov has said in an interview with the Energy Reform website.
The total investment in construction of the plants was EUR 30 million, including EUR 4.5 million of own funds of the group, and the rest is borrowed funds from Danish IFU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The major EPC contractor includes the engineering company Podilsky Energy Consulting. The company sells inverter equipment, power collection cabinets, generation monitoring systems and supporting structures for Ukrainian-made solar cell arrays. In February 2019, the group launched a first large solar cell arrays plant in Ukraine.
