The Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN) has started accepting applications for special credit guarantees for exports to Ukraine since March 1. The total limit of guarantees according to the country’s budget for 2024 is SEK333m ($32.1m at the current exchange rate).
According to EKN, this became possible after the Swedish government adopted a relevant decree on February 29.
In addition to the new export credit guarantees, the government also decided to open a trade secretary’s office in Kiev and appoint a new trade secretary, the press release said.
“The export credit guarantees and the opening of a new trade office in Kiev will make it easier for Swedish companies to invest in Ukraine. It is also a concrete example of how the government is working to increase synergies between aid, trade and business promotion,” the statement quotes the Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell as saying.
It is indicated that guarantees will be provided for exports that can contribute to the development and welfare of Ukraine.
On Monday, March 4, light rain is expected in the western regions of Ukraine, with sleet at night in some places, and no precipitation in the rest of the country, the Ukrainian Weather Center reports.
Southeast wind, 7-12 m/s. Temperature at night from 2° C to 3° C, during the day 5-10° C, in Transcarpathia and Prykarpattia at night 1-6° C, during the day 10-15°.
No precipitation in Kyiv on Monday. Southeast wind, 7-12 m/s. The temperature at night will be around 0°, during the day 6-8° Celsius.
According to the Borys Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory, on March 4, the highest daytime temperature in Kyiv was 16.1° in 1995, the lowest nighttime temperature was -21.1° in 1987.
On Tuesday, January 5, there will be no precipitation in Ukraine, only in the western regions there will be light rain.
The wind is east, northeast, 5-10 m/s. Temperature at night from 2° C to 3° C, in the western regions 0-5° C; during the day 5-10° C, in the south and west of the country up to 13°, in Transcarpathia and Crimea 12-17°.
No precipitation in Kyiv on Tuesday. East, northeast wind, 5-10 m/s. The temperature at night will be around 0°, during the day 6-8° Celsius.
As of the end of February of the 2023/2024 marketing year, which started on July 1, Ukraine has already exported more than 29.1 million tons of grain, legumes and flour, Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, said on Telegram.
He clarified that in terms of major crops, 15.8 million tons of corn, 11.5 million tons of wheat, and 1.6 million tons of barley were supplied to foreign markets.
“Compared to the same date last year, there is a lag of almost 2.6 million tons (although, for example, wheat was shipped a quarter of a million tons more than last year),” the head of the parliamentary financial committee said.
Mr. Hetmantsev explained the slowdown in grain exports by the fact that for a month and a half, in July and the first half of August last year, when sea exports were forced to pause due to Russia’s withdrawal from the Istanbul grain initiative, Ukraine had to develop an “alternative grain corridor.” In August 2023, thanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, it became available, and in the first months, foreign shipowners were restrained and cautious, looking closely at whether the new route was really safe, he recalled.
“In November 2023, some ‘friends and neighbors’ began to create obstacles for us on the land border under artificial and far-fetched pretexts, and these processes are still ongoing,” Hetmantsev wrote.
The chairman of the parliamentary committee expressed confidence that Ukraine would soon completely close the current gap.
He emphasized that in recent months, Ukraine has returned to almost pre-war export volumes, 90% of Ukrainian grain is shipped to foreign customers by sea, and dependence on the land corridor on the western border is decreasing.
“Thus, Ukraine will continue to play the role of one of the guarantors of global food security, while at the same time replenishing the treasury with serious foreign exchange earnings (in the near future, agricultural products will remain a key item of Ukrainian exports),” Hetmantsev summarized.
On February 20, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) canceled the registration of the issue of ordinary registered shares of PJSC “Concern Oranta” in connection with the termination by merger with PJSC “National Joint Stock Insurance Company “Oranta” (Kyiv), according to the commission’s website.
As reported at the end of May 2022, the shareholders of NJSIC “Oranta” decided to join PJSC “Concern “Oranta”. In October 2021, Oranta reduced its stake in Oranta Concern PJSC from 100% to 76.19%. Interinformcenter PE became the owner of 23.809% of the shares of Oranta Concern.
Oranta Concern was registered in 1998. It specializes, inter alia, in leasing and operation of own or leased real estate (the principal activity), as well as in the activities of intermediaries in the trade of goods of a wide range, leasing of office machinery and equipment, including computers, and general cleaning of buildings.
The authorized capital is UAH 21 million.
Oranta is the legal successor of Ukrderzhstrakh, founded on November 25, 1921. The insurer operates under 33 licenses: 15 compulsory and 18 voluntary types of insurance. Ukrainian businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky’s NS-Finance LLC owns 72.24036% of Oranta.
Quotes of interbank currency market of Ukraine (UAH for 1 pln, in 01.11.2023-30.11.2023)
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The average salary in Ukraine reached UAH 19.5 thousand at the beginning of 2024, which is 30% or UAH 4.5 thousand more than at the beginning of 2022, according to a study of job offers by Work.ua.
“Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the labor market has recovered by 93% in terms of the number of vacancies,” the study says.
According to the published data, in January 2024, employers published more than 91 thousand vacancies, which is 6% less than in December 2023, and 7% less than in January 2022, but about 11 times more than in March 2022.
It is noted that, compared to pre-war figures, the number of vacancies has increased the most in Zakarpattia (55%), Ivano-Frankivsk (46%), Khmelnytsky (25%), Lviv (23%), Vinnytsia (20%), Rivne (18%) and Chernivtsi (16%) regions.
Kyiv (30.9 thousand vacancies), Lviv (almost 8.5 thousand), Dnipropetrovs’k (8.45 thousand), Odesa (5 752) and Kharkiv (3 347) regions remain the leading regions in terms of the absolute number of job offers. These regions account for 63% of all vacancies.
In terms of growth by category compared to pre-war figures, the top 5 categories were medicine and pharmaceuticals (+26%, to 6 thousand offers), education and science (+23%, to 4.8 thousand), security and safety (+22%, to 2.3 thousand), law (+13%, to 1.8 thousand), and retail (+9%, to 12 thousand).
At the same time, in 19 categories, there were fewer job offers in January 2024 than in January 2022. IT, computers, and the Internet are the slowest to recover.
Research by Work.ua shows that Ukrainians want to work remotely: in January 2024, there were already 3% more remote work offers (6.2 thousand) than in January 2022.
It is emphasized that there are many more vacancies in the public sector – in non-profit, charitable and public organizations: if in January 2022 there were 100 of them, now their number has exceeded 1100.
In addition, the number of vacancies for veterans has tripled. At the same time, such job offers still account for 7% of the labor market.
Also, since January 2022, the number of vacancies for pensioners has doubled (about 4% of the labor market). For people with disabilities, the number of job offers increased by 22%, and for students – by only 1%.
“Changes in the country’s life have also affected the labor market. Thus, professions that were not previously available on Work.ua have appeared on the site. First of all, these are specialists of the Defense Forces: combat medic, grenade launcher, mortar gunner, drone pilot, etc.”, the study states.
It is emphasized that there is a demand for mental health in society: an increase in vacancies can be seen for psychologists (+136% in January 2024 compared to January 2022) and psychiatrists (+129%).
There is a growing demand for rehabilitation specialists and doctors: massage therapists (+69%), nurses (+67%), cardiologists (+67%), rehabilitation therapists (+58%), surgeons (+56%), nurses (+51%), and dental assistants (+44%).
The forced migration of Ukrainians abroad has spurred demand for teachers of English (+40%), Polish (+69%), German (+93%), French (+200%), and Spanish (+218%).
The full-scale invasion affected the work of employees in the tourism, shipping, and construction sectors, so there were fewer jobs for tourism managers (-62%), crewing managers (-56%), architects (-54%), interior designers (-53%), and 1C analysts (-55%) due to the rejection of Russian software.
The biggest drop in job offers is in the IT sector: Front-end developer (-81%), back-end developer (-75%), tester (-63%), etc.
Work.ua experts said that the rejection of the Russian language has affected the labor market, and in January 2024, the vast majority of vacancies, namely 96%, were in Ukrainian.
