Oil prices are down slightly on Monday after a jump last week following a decision by a number of OPEC+ countries, including Saudi Arabia, to further cut production.
U.S. and European stock exchanges were closed on Friday due to the Easter holiday.
The price of June futures for Brent crude oil on London’s ICE Futures exchange was $85 a barrel by 8:05 a.m. Monday, down $0.12 (0.14%) from the previous session’s close. Those contracts rose $0.13 (0.2%) to $85.12 a barrel on Thursday.
The price of WTI futures for May oil at NYMEX fell by $0.09 (0.11%) to $80.61 per barrel by that time. At the end of previous session the contracts value grew by $0.09 (0.1%) to $80.7 per barrel.
Brent gained 6.6% and WTI gained almost 6.7%.
The market’s attention this week is fixed on monthly reviews of OPEC and International Energy Agency (IEA) on oil market and also on US Department of Energy data on energy reserves in the country.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy reported a decline in both oil and gasoline and distillate inventories in the states.
“Economic statistical data will be key for the oil market this week,” notes Saxo Capital Markets Pte analyst Charu Chanana.
The recent decision to cut production by a number of OPEC+ countries “was partly designed to squeeze short sellers out of the oil market, and oil prices may now be better able to reflect market fundamentals,” Bloomberg quotes the expert as saying.
Free train travel from Poland to Germany for Ukrainians continues, the Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories said.
“We are talking about the train “Peremyshl – Hanover”. Free travel for Ukrainians in it is extended until the end of May 2023,” – noted in the message.
According to the information, the departure from Peremyshl will take place on odd numbers of April at 22:30. It is not necessary to have boarding passes. It is only necessary to present a passport of a citizen of Ukraine or other identity document.
“Priority in transportation is given to people with bracelets from the Polish Red Cross, families with children, the elderly and people with disabilities. In case of a shortage of available seats, Red Cross volunteers should be contacted. They will help with accommodation, as well as guaranteed to get on the next train”, – noted in the message.
In Hannover, passengers are met by workers or volunteers who will show the route to the help centers, writes the press service of the Ministry of Reintegration.
The number of participants in the non-banking financial market in March 2023 decreased by 37 to 1,347, the website of the National Bank of Ukraine reports.
The number of banks in February decreased by two, to 65, due to the NBU’s decisions to revoke the license and liquidate Forward Bank and Ayboks Bank.
No one was included in the register for March. At the same time, 12 financial companies, five pawnshops, two credit unions and five leasing companies have been voluntarily excluded from the roster, while seven financial companies, five insurers and one leasing company have been compulsory excluded.
According to the regulator, during March one leasing company was denied a license. Simultaneously, 15 financial companies, four pawnshops, two credit unions and five leasing companies had all their licenses revoked voluntarily (on the basis of applications submitted by them), and the other three financial companies were revoked compulsorily (as a measure of influence).
In addition, two financial companies and one insurer had their licenses revoked voluntarily, and two financial companies and four insurers – forcibly. Also, the licenses of one financial company and one lessor were renewed.
As of March 31, the non-banking market had 110 non-life insurers (115 in February) and 12 life insurers (the number has not changed), one insurer with special status, 171 pawnshops (176), 157 credit unions (159), 89 leasing companies (92), 682 financial companies (701), 58 insurance brokers (number has not changed) and 67 collection companies (number has not changed).
Besides, 25 banking groups (the number has not changed) and 22 non-banking financial groups (as in February) are recognized in the market.
In the payment market operate 33 payment systems (37), created by residents, including state, and 16 international payment systems, created by non-residents (the number has not changed). In addition, companies providing financial payment services operate in the market, including three banks issuing electronic money (the number did not change). Other subjects operating in the payment market include 36 commercial agents (41) and 35 technological operators of payment services (the number has not changed).
In March, the National Bank received 414 requests from market participants for registration and licensing actions. The number of inquiries on financial companies, pawnshops and lessors amounted to 256. The number of inquiries on credit institutions (banks and credit unions) was 57, on insurers – 75, on payment institutions – 26.
Mykolaivpastrans municipal enterprise of Mykolaiv City Council has announced a tender for the purchase of low-floor buses worth up to EUR4.5 million under the “Urban Public Transport of Ukraine” project, financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
According to information in ProZorro on Friday, the relevant announcement was posted in the online version of the EU Official Gazette on April 5. The disclosure of the bids is scheduled for May 31.
According to the announcement, the terms of the tender provide for the supply of buses between 8.2 m and 10.5 m in length, including basic and consumable spare parts, equipment and tools for maintenance and repair, and related services.
The buses must be diesel-powered, with access without steps by at least two doors, 2.55-3.5 m wide, have a passenger capacity of at least 60 people, including at least 24 seated (plus one space for a wheelchair).
The first batch of buses must be delivered no later than five months from the date of receipt of advance payment by the supplier, and the completion of the contract – in 12 months.
According to the website of Mykolaiv City Council, at the end of March this year, the resumption of cooperation with the EIB on the project “Urban public transport of Ukraine” on the local television channel said the head of “Nikolaevpastrans” Alexey Ushakov.
As reported, the previous similar tender within this project was announced in September 2021 with the opening of bids at the end of November. However, the procurement procedure was halted due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the rf.
Nikolaev had attempted to purchase buses within the framework of this program before: the relevant tender was announced in March 2021, it was supposed to purchase buses with the length from 8.8 to 9.5 m.
However, in July of the same year, the tender was canceled after all bids were rejected (they were submitted by the Ukrainian dealer of Minsk Bus Plant – the company Modern Trucks and the Chernihiv Automobile Plant).
“The winner according to all requirements of the tender is the representative of MAZ in Ukraine. However, due to the sanctions imposed by the EU on the Belarusian companies, it was decided to announce a new tender and invite more participants,” explained then in the city council of Nikolaev.
According to the website of the city council, currently 20 vehicles of “Nikolaevpastrans” work on the routes of Nikolaev.
Recently, the city received from the German company three buses “accordion” Mercedes Citaro passenger capacity of up to 150 people.
Labor market continues to demonstrate positive growth dynamics: the number of vacancies in March increased by 14% compared to February and reached almost 75.6 thousand.
These are the main results of the regular labor market survey presented by Work.ua on Thursday.
“The number of vacancies in the category of hotel and restaurant business and tourism has increased rapidly. Jobs and candidates are returning to frontline areas,” the study said.
According to it, the number of vacancies relative to the 2022 prewar level is almost 75%, when compared to the 2021 figure of 91%.
It is noted that the top five countries by number of vacancies are the Kiev region – nearly 22.8 thousand (+14% compared to February), Lviv region – 7.52 thousand (+9%), Dnipropetrovsk region – 7.2 thousand (+12%), Odessa region – 5.46 thousand (+22%) and Ivano-Frankivsk region – 2.43 thousand (+21%).
It is indicated that with the advent of spring a record for the growth of job offers, according to the system of recruitment management (HMS) from Work.ua, was the category “hotel, restaurant business and tourism” – 7.22 thousand vacancies, which is 29% more than a month earlier. The most popular position in this category is a bartender: 1.37 thousand job offers, which is 40% more than in February. And the greatest trend was for barbecue cook vacancies with 95 offers, up 94% from February’s numbers.
In contrast to job openings, which are increasing each month, job seeker competition continues to decline, down 13% from February, with fewer than one person per day responding on average now, down from close to 3.5 in March-April 2022.
“The March 2023 competition is four times lower than it was at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in March 2022,” the materials said.
The highest competition is in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Vinnitsa, Odessa and Volyn oblasts. The lowest – in Zakarpattya, Chernivtsi, Kherson, Ternopil and Kirovograd regions.
“With regard to positions with high competition of applicants, which usually falls into the position of digital specialists with the ability to work remotely and the administrators of beauty salons, if you compare with March 2022, the number of those wishing to work as an administrator beauty salon in 2023 decreased by 10 times, and, for example, wishing to work Front-end programmer and Java programmer – increased by three or four times,” – says the study.
This may be a consequence of the optimization taking place in the IT-sphere.
At the same time, according to Work.ua, in general, the influx of applicants to the market is still growing: in March there were 7% more candidates than in February. Among them are sales consultants, sales managers, administrators, drivers, office managers, accountants, bartenders, waiters, customer service managers and cashiers.
The top three positions with the largest increase in applicants were Dietitian – +327% (64 candidates), Excavatorist – +115% (58), and .Net Programmer – +102% (105).
The largest increase of new candidates in March compared with February was observed in the frontline regions: Sumy region -22% (848 applicants), Mykolayiv region – 15% (859), Donetsk region – 14% (146), as well as Odesa region – 16% (more than 4 thousand applicants) and Kyiv region – 10% (17.6 thousand).
Speaking about the salaries, Work.ua experts noted a slight increase of 500 UAH in the Odessa and Lviv regions – respectively up to 15.5 thousand UAH and 16 thousand UAH.
In general, in the first month of spring the average salary in Ukraine amounted to 16 thousand UAH.
According to the resource, by sectors the salaries in insurance increased most of all – by 9%, medicine and pharmaceuticals – by 4%, business, hospitality and tourism business, security and safety – by 3%.
The top most paid jobs in non-managerial positions was headed by media buyer – 52.5 thousand UAH, international driver – 40 thousand UAH, business analyst – 32.5 thousand UAH and rebuilder, rickshaw puller and realtor – 30 thousand UAH.
As before, the lowest salaries are offered to cleaners – 8 thousand UAH, dishwashers – 9 thousand UAH and nurses – 9 thousand UAH, which in March increased by 500 UAH against February.
It is reported that most of all candidates with more than five years of experience enter the labor market – nearly 83 thousand (+7% vs. February). The second largest category is without experience, almost 80 thousand candidates (+7%). The third group has two to five years of experience: 40,200 people (+5%). More women than men enter the labor market – 56% against 44%.
In 2022, Vodafone Ukraine reduced its net income by 2% to UAH 19.8 billion, having received a net profit of UAH 1.1 billion, the press service of the mobile operator reported on Friday.
According to a press release, OIBDA (Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization) of Vodafone Ukraine in 2022 grew by 3% and amounted to UAH 11.3 billion, OIBDA margin rose by 2.5 p.p. to 56.9%.
“The company’s revenue in 2022 was UAH 19.8 billion. A decrease of 2% compared to the previous year is due to a decrease in the number of mobile network users. Vodafone’s net profit in 2022 was UAH 1.1 billion. The decrease in the indicator… is due to losses from exchange rate differences received as a result of the growth of the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the hryvnia by 34%,” the company said.
Most Vodafone Ukraine mobile users lived in the east and south of Ukraine. In connection with the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation and the hostilities that disabled a number of mobile communication networks in the temporarily occupied territories and directly in the war zone, Vodafone lost the most subscribers of all Ukrainian operators – 3.5 million users, the company said in the report.
As of the end of 2022, Vodafone had 15.4 million customers.
Currently over 2.2 million users remain abroad and continue using Vodafone services.
“Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Vodafone has been supporting Ukrainians who seek protection in European countries and provides the free connection to the Affordable Roaming service in most tariffs. The service provides 10GB of mobile Internet and 100 minutes for calls with subscribers in Ukraine and the country of residence, subject to paid Ukrainian package,” the company said, specifying that the Affordable Roaming offer is used by 87% of all customers staying in the roaming zone.
Data services are used by 71% of all Vodafone customers, while the mobile Internet usage has grown by 1.5 times, the company said.
Despite the impact of the war on the company’s revenues in 2022, Vodafone Ukraine maintained business stability, not reducing but increasing the volume of investments in developing and supporting the country’s telecom infrastructure. At the same time, it was possible to enhance business efficiency and the penetration of digital services, the company said in the press release.
Vodafone increased capital investments to UAH 3.6 billion in 2022.
“Thanks to this, Vodafone engineers restored the destroyed infrastructure, quickly repaired equipment, developed the network, and ensured the availability of communications in blackout conditions. During the year, the company’s engineers returned to the air about 800 villages and cities, carrying out about 2,960 repair trips, including in close proximity to the front line,” the company said.
Vodafone did not stop the development of the network. In 2022, the company’s specialists paid special attention to expanding capacity and coverage in regions of mass migration. In general, since the beginning of the war, 4,000 4G base stations have been launched.
Significant resources of the company were sent to ensure the availability of communications in the conditions of power outages due to targeted attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure facilities. Vodafone purchased 414 mobile generators, and the company’s engineers replaced 24,712 batteries. To ensure the operation of alternative power sources, 519 tonnes of diesel fuel were used.
The company said that today 88% of the network is operating well.
