Ukraine’s gross foreign debt amounted to $116.29 billion as of early April 2018, which was 0.25% or $288 million less than at the beginning of the year, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on its website on Tuesday. According to the central bank, government debt in Q1 2018 increased by 0.39%, to $39.153 billion, NBU liabilities decreased by 0.47%, to $7.403 billion. Government debt and NBU liabilities are represented exclusively by long-term borrowings.
The liabilities of deposit corporations in the reporting period increased by 0.8%, to $6.236 billion, other sectors decreased by 1.11%, to $53.861 billion and debt on direct investments grew by 0.37%, to $9.587 billion.
The lion’s share of gross external debt is denominated in U.S. dollars – 70.9%. Another 13% are liabilities in euros and 11.8% in SDR (special drawing rights). The National Bank also said that net gross external assets as of early April 2018 amounted to $5.032 billion, whereas as of late 2017 the net gross external debt was $4.111 billion.
As reported, the aggregate state (direct) and state-guaranteed debt of Ukraine in April 2018 decreased by 0.41%, or by $320 million, to $77.05 billion. In the national currency, the national debt declined by 1.59%, or by UAH 32.62 billion, to UAH 2.021 trillion. Since the beginning of the year, the aggregate state (direct) and state-guaranteed debt in U.S. dollar terms increased by 0.97%, or by $740 million, in the hryvnia declined by 5.64%, or by UAH 120.7 billion.
Ukrainian IT talents have received another important argument in favor of the industry development in the country. A new business campus of the UNIT.City Innovation Park with the Chasopys.UNIT co-working place has opened in Kyiv. Many incumbent and future residents of the innovative city – more than 500 people – gathered to celebrate a house-warming party on June 14. “Our main task is to help talented people grow and succeed in our country but not abroad, create big companies. This is a challenge to build not only a modern city but also a space for new opportunities for the development of a creative economy of the country,” founder of UFuture Investment Group and one of the major investors in the project Vasyl Khmelnytsky said.
The building with an area of 3,800 square meters is designed for 360 people to work comfortably at once. The project of the new building was created by the Odesa architectural studio Haliulin Architects. The campus has the shape of a cube, while three types of glass were used in construction. “If to walk along the building, it seems to be hovering in the air, going up and down along the axis,” CEO and Managing Partner of UNIT.City Max Yakover said.
Some 50 well-known companies have entered or selected offices in the new campus, including SolarGaps, a Ukrainian startup in the field of alternative energy, the Quadrate28 marketing agency, ARbrowser, LookinAR, and Crosslytics.
“The first residents of the new co-working space became the following companies: Imperious Group, Royenko Agency, Hubble Ukraine, the DTEK design team, the Quadrate28 representative office and others,” UNIT.City Managing Partner Maksym Bakhmatov stated. The Fedoriv creative agency plans to become a resident of UNIT.City. Andriy Fedoriv is seeking a location in the innovative city building being under construction, the opening of which is scheduled for this year.
“Chasopys.UNIT is the fourth co-working place of the Chasopys network,” CEO of Chasopys Creative Family Aliona Kalibaba said. According to her, the best practices achieved in the last six years were united in the design of the building. “The campus events calendar is being filled in. Schools of entrepreneurship, international competitions and a form of expert Fridays will be held here,” Kalibaba added.
Small and Medium-Sized Business School will launch the second enrolment for studying in Cherkasy. This is a joint project of Cherkasy Regional State Administration, the Regional Development Agency of Cherkasy region and K.Fund of Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
Entrepreneurs from various fields of business will take an intensive nine-day training course in the main areas of organization and doing business. After that, within three weeks students must prepare and defend their business plans.
More information about the tutors and the program is on https://goo.gl/DFJLnC
Registration reference: Application – 2 Small and Medium-Sized Business School Cherkasy
BUSINESS SCHOOL, CHERKASY, ENROLMENT STUDYING, VASYL KHMELNYTSKY
Ukraine in January-May 2018 increased electricity exports by 1.3% (34.684 million kWh) compared to the same period in 2017, to 2.653 billion kWh, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry has told Interfax-Ukraine. Power supply from the Burshtyn TPP energy island towards Hungary, Slovakia and Romania increased by 10.4% (by 159.488 million kWh), to 1.686 billion kWh.
Electricity deliveries to Poland increased by 24.3% (by 128.407 million kWh), to 656.551 million kWh. Electricity supplies to Moldova amounted to 310.767 million kWh, which is 44.9% (253.211 million kWh) less than in January-May 2017. Ukrainian electricity was not exported to Belarus and Russia in January-May 2017 and January-May 2018
At the same time, in May 2018 exports of Ukrainian electricity amounted to 464.558 million kWh, which is 23.5% (143.076 million kWh) less than in May 2017. In addition, Ukraine for the first five months of this year imported 14.818 million kWh of electricity (14.221 million kWh from Russia, 596,000 kWh from Belarus).
Farmers in Mykolaiv, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions have started harvesting winter wheat and as of June 18 they had harvested the first 10,500 tonnes from 4,000 hectares. According to the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, in addition to these regions, the harvesting campaign continues in Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions. “In general, 281,000 tonnes of grain have been harvested from 86,000 hectares with the yield being 32.6 centner per hectare, including 10,000 tonnes of winter wheat from 4,000 hectares with the yield being 26.2 centners per hectare, 268,000 tonnes of winter barley from 81,000 hectares with the yield being 33 centners per hectare, 2,000 tonnes of peas from 1,000 hectares with the yield standing at 22.7 centners per hectare,” the report said.
Zaporizhia, Odesa and Kherson regions have started harvesting winter rapeseeds, 6,000 tonnes of which has been threshed on 3,000 hectares with a yield of 17.4 centners per ha.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
