The U.S. dollar is becoming cheaper in pairs with the pound and the euro, but it is slightly stronger against the Japanese yen.
The ICE-calculated index showing the US dollar’s dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and the Swedish krona) is down less than 0.1% in the morning session.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0599 as of 8:18 a.m. versus $1.0587 at the close of Tuesday’s session, with the euro adding about 0.2%.
Investors continue to evaluate statistical data and statements by Federal Reserve (Fed) officials to try to predict future interest rate changes.
Judging by the rate futures, market participants see some probability that at the next meeting of the Federal Reserve the rate will be increased by 50 basis points at once, though earlier investors were sure that the central bank will now change the rate in steps of 25 bps.
Overall, the market is expecting a rate hike to peak at 5.25-5.5% from the current 4.5-4.75%.
The pound is up 0.2% at $1.2049 versus $1.2023 at the close of last session.
The dollar is up 0.1% against the yen, trading at 136.37 yen.
Meanwhile, the yuan, which is traded in mainland China, jumped against the dollar by 0.4% to 6.9035/$1.
As reported, Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) in the processing industry in China rose to 52.6 points in February from 50.1 points a month earlier. Experts on average had expected a more moderate increase to 50.5 points.
The service sector PMI rose to 56.3 points in February from 54.4 points in January. The indicator reached its highest level since March 2021.
The index value above the mark of 50 points indicates an increase in business activity, below it – a decrease.
Sales of new passenger cars in February this year more than halved compared to the same month in 2022, amounting to slightly more than 2.7 thousand units, Ukravtoprom reported in Telegram channel.
According to the association, compared to January of this year, the market for new passenger cars has decreased by 8%.
Toyota showed the best result of the month (as in February 2022), having increased sales by 50% in February 2022 – to 351 cars, and Volkswagen was second with a 9% drop in sales – to 255, but rose from seventh place in last February.
At the same time, the premium brand BMW has “stormed” into the top three, adding 65% to its sales to 221 cars. In February 2022, the brand was 12th in the ranking with sales of 173 cars.
The fourth result was shown by two brands – Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai (211 cars each), but if Korean brand lagged behind last year’s figure by 38%, Mercedes-Benz increased sales by 17%, according to Ukravtoprom.
According to Ukravtoprom in February 2022, these brands were ranked tenth (Mercedes-Benz) and fifth (Hyundai ) in the ranking of new passenger cars.
Renault – 201 units (-69%), which was the second in February 2023, closes the top five.
At the same time crossover Renault Duster remains the best seller of the month in the Ukrainian market of new passenger cars, which has 174 registrations.
“Ukravtoprom” notes that in January-February 2023, domestic car fleet added 5.7 thousand new cars, which is 47% less than during the same period in 2022.
As reported, in 2022, according to Ukravtoprom, Ukrainians registered 37.9 thousand new cars – 63% less than in 2021, and this result is the lowest since the beginning of the century.
Even after the end of the war, 860,000 to 2.7 million Ukrainian refugees may stay abroad, which will lead to a loss of GDP of 2.55 to 7.71%, according to a study of the Center for Economic Strategy (CES).
“According to our calculations, from 860 thousand to 2.7 million Ukrainians may stay abroad. More prone to return are the elderly, people with lower levels of education, as well as those who worked before the war, “- said the experts of the center.
They recalled that in total there were 3.8-4.7 million Ukrainian refugees abroad (except Russia and Belarus) by the end of 2022, and about 1.5 million more in Russia.
According to the survey conducted by Info Sapiens, the ratio of adults to children is 1:1.07. Among adults, women aged 35 to 49 are the most numerous – 42.2%, while men of that age make up 6.4%.
Women 25-34 years old make up 18.5%, men 3.2%, and those 18-24 years old 8.2% and 3.5%, respectively.
According to the survey, at the end of the year 11.3% of refugees aged 35-49 years definitely or rather did not plan to return to Ukraine, 13.1% of refugees aged 18-24 years, 8.2%-8.3% of refugees aged 25-34 years, and 50-65 years.
It is also stated that almost a quarter of the residents left the Zaporizhzhya region, and almost a fifth from Kiev and the Kiev region, while from the western regions – less than 10%.
Among the main reasons for refugees to settle in a new place outside of Ukraine the CEC named the prolongation of the war, the positive attitude of Europeans to Ukrainians, the prospects for children.
In addition, those who left abroad from the war zone may have nowhere to return, so their return depends on the rapid reconstruction of their regions or support to move to other regions of Ukraine.
The Economic Court of Cherkasy region in a full decision dated February 20, 2023 granted the claim of PJSC Cherkasyoblenergo to invalidate the purchase and sale contracts of Steblevskaya and Korsun-Shevchenko HPPs between the company and the foreign economic association Novosvit in 2015.
“The property complexes of Steblevskaya HPP and Korsun-Shevchenko HPP were alienated under the disputed contracts without holding an auction, without notifying the State Property Fund of Ukraine in order to conceal illegal transactions, which resulted in significant damage to PJSC Cherkasyoblenergo and the state”, – says the court decision.
As follows from the document, assessment of the property alienated under the disputed agreements to determine its market value, in violation of the requirements of the law “On Joint Stock Companies” and the charter of “Cherkassyoblenergo” was carried out without decision of the Supervisory Board of the company to involve a subject of evaluation activities, without approval of the terms of the contract with him and establishing the amount of his services payment, as well as approval of the market value of property.
“As a result of illegal appraisal of the property of the Stebleva HPP and the Korsun-Shevchenko HPP as integral property complexes, the acting Chairman of the Company’s Board S.A. Kuzminska, who concluded the disputable contracts on behalf of Cherkasyloblenergo, artificially underestimated the market value of these two HPPs in order to avoid the prohibition, provided by the PJSC Charter, for her own decision on transactions with property with a market value of over 5% of the company assets”, the court decision says.
According to the document, the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine is currently conducting a pre-trial investigation into the criminal proceedings on the embezzlement of property of Cherkasyoblenergo on a particularly large scale, during which the conclusion on November 6, 2015 between Cherkasyoblenergo represented by S.A. Kuzminskaya and the foreign economic association Novosvit in violation of the requirements of current legislation and the charter of the PJSC.
According to the lawyer of the company “Tsypin and Partners” Marina Sutkovych, who represented the interests of “Cherkassyoblenergo” in court, the total amount of losses of the company as a result of the purchase and sale of two hydroelectric power plants amounted to 139,5 million UAH.
At the beginning of 2022, 46% of Cherkassyoblenergo shares were transferred from the State Property Fund to the Ministry of Energy. Another 25% of shares are managed by Ukrainian Energy Saving Service Company PJSC (UkrEsco).
American business has every opportunity to take leading positions in restoring Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure right now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address to members of the National Association of US Manufacturers.
As the head of state noted, participation in the reconstruction of Ukraine after the hostilities will give an extraordinary moral advantage to all businesses. At the same time, according to him, businesses that help in one way or another the Russian tyranny, will not be able to avoid problems and reputational crisis.
“American business is well positioned to take the lead in both rebuilding the Ukrainian economy and infrastructure and in showing the world that it is human nature to serve precisely worthy ends, and that this gives and always will give the greatest result. Ukrainian life after this war will inevitably get a fresh start,” Zelensky said.
He stressed that Ukraine now needs to restore hundreds of industrial, infrastructure and social facilities, residential buildings.
“Entire cities, industries, productions. This is a colossal task. But realistic. Ukraine is interested in projects to create a full production cycle in titanium, lithium, aluminum production, ferrous metallurgy … We need to rebuild the economy and energy on new security principles. It is in Ukraine that we will combine green transformation with security transformation and set an example for the same transformation in other countries”, Zelensky said.
He also said that mechanical engineering, agro-processing, weapons production, including modern drones, IT, transportation and infrastructure, localization of business in Ukraine and convenient logistics to other markets from Ukraine, and human capital “are not just investment opportunities and growth, but a wide space for American victories.”
“I urge you to prepare for these victories now and come to Ukraine now so that when we return the world, your hard work will already be producing results,” the president concluded.
The National Association of Manufacturers is one of the largest associations of manufacturers in the American business world which represents large and small manufacturers from all branches of industry in all 50 states of the United States. The association now has about 14,000 members.
Carpathian Mineral Waters Group of Companies (KMW), one of the major players on the Ukrainian market, plans to build another plant in the Lviv region with production capacity at the first stage of 230 million bottles of water per year, the head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration Maxim Kozitsky said in a telegram on Tuesday.
“Preliminarily, construction will begin as early as this spring. Construction of the first start-up complex will be completed in the spring of 2024,” he wrote after a meeting with representatives of KMV.
According to him, the group has already finished the preparatory documentary procedures for the construction of the plant.
It is assumed that after the first start-up complex for 230 million bottles per year, three more start-up complexes will be built, 300 people will get a job, and the company will pay about 110 million hryvnias of taxes annually.
According to information on the company web-site it started its activity on the mineral water market in 1996 with bottling of the mineral natural table water under TM “Karpatska Dzherelna” and in June 2002 it was reorganized into mineral water and non-alcoholic drinks production plant “Karpatskie Mineralni Voda”. In 2002 the production of sweet carbonated beverages under Fruktova Dzherelna TM and Sokovinka TM was launched, and in 2016 – energy drink under Dragon TM.
In 2019-2020, Karpatskie Mineralnye Vyody LLC’s annual revenues slightly exceeded UAH 100 million with net profits of UAH 33 million and UAH 14 million, respectively. For the 9 months of 2021 the revenue was 87.6 million UAH with a net profit of 21 million UAH.
