According to the April report of the World Gold Council, Uzbekistan has once again become the world leader in gold sales.
In April 2025, total gold purchases by central banks worldwide amounted to 12 tons, which is 12% less than in March and significantly below the average for the last 12 months (28 tons). This is the second consecutive month of decline in purchases.
WGC experts believe that the decline in demand may be linked to record gold prices recorded at the beginning of the year. Although central banks usually adhere to a long-term strategy, the rise in the price of gold may have temporarily reduced interest in active purchases.
The largest purchase in April was made by the National Bank of Poland, which increased its reserves by 12 tons to 509 tons. This exceeded the European Central Bank’s reserves of 507 tons. In total, Poland has purchased 61 tons of gold since the beginning of the year.
Other notable buyers included the central banks of the Czech Republic (+3 tons), China (+2 tons), Turkey (+2 tons), Kyrgyzstan (+2 tons), Kazakhstan (+1 ton), and Jordan (+1 ton).
Amid general caution in the gold market, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan continued to sell off its reserves, selling another 11 tons in April. Thus, for the third month in a row, the republic has maintained its position as the largest seller of the precious metal. Since the beginning of the year, gold reserves have decreased by 26 tons to 356 tons.
Uzbekistan retains its status as the largest gold exporter in 2025.
As of May 1, the country’s total gold and foreign exchange reserves reached $49.25 billion, equivalent to 15 months of imports. At the same time, foreign exchange reserves exceed $11 billion.
The mining and metallurgical group Metinvest is transforming its business processes with artificial intelligence (AI) through automation, the use of drones, and the application of these tools in the financial sector.
“In 2020, we were able to automate about 70% of our processes, with 30% remaining inaccessible due to technological limitations. Today, this figure has risen to 95%. This opens up completely new opportunities, and we are actively moving in this direction,” said Anton Ishchenko, head of the R&D product development team at Metinvest Digital, at the 13th Annual Forum of Financial Directors of Ukraine in Kyiv.
According to him, in five years of working with intelligent process automation, more than 500 solutions based on various technologies have been implemented, which has made it possible to automate about 200,000 hours of work, equivalent to approximately 100 full-time employees.
He noted that modern intelligent automation at Metinvest is based on a combination of RPA (routine operation robotization), low-code platforms (rapid solution development without complex coding), Process and Task Mining (process analysis to identify inefficiencies), and AI (automation of complex tasks and real-time data processing).
One of the main innovations is the active involvement of employees in the automation process. At Metinvest, employees independently record their business processes and work activities using Task Mining, Power Automate, and SAP Scripts. This allows for the formation of high-quality and structured automation requirements from the ground up, reduces the workload on business analysts, and speeds up the transition from idea to finished solution. The collected data and processes are analyzed automatically using AI and then quickly transformed into working automated scenarios. As a result, the time and resources spent on development and implementation are reduced by tens of percent. In the context of limited business budgets, this approach has become extremely important, emphasized Ishchenko.
The result of this practice is the creation of the Application Warehouse corporate platform, a centralized repository of universal applications for automating typical business processes in various departments of the company. This significantly increases the availability of digital tools: new solutions are quickly implemented, distributed among employees, and do not need to be developed from scratch for each task. Currently, about a thousand employees use the platform.
“We continue to invest in research and development to create business value and remain among the leaders in digital transformation,” Ishchenko concluded.
In turn, the group’s CFO, Yulia Dankova, pointed to the comprehensive implementation of computer vision and intelligent document processing technologies in the company’s financial and production processes. According to her, modern solutions based on Computer Vision enable instant reading, analysis, and classification of documents from various sources, from scanners to corporate mail, without the need for prior training.
Since 2023, Metinvest has been using its own intelligent document processing system, myOCR. The platform, which processes up to 40,000 pages of documents per month, including confidential ones, has been implemented at seven large enterprises of the group. It saves about 20,000 hours of working time per year and is integrated with a universal translator from foreign languages into Ukrainian. It contains modules for identifying stamps, signatures, contextual analysis, document classification, data verification, and extraction. At its core are advanced AI models.
“For example, a company is importing goods from an Italian factory. The automated process receives a package of documents in Italian and English, compares them with the accounting system data, generates an authentic translation into Ukrainian, adds it to the package, and transfers it to the electronic document storage system. For financial departments, this has been a real breakthrough in the speed and convenience of document flow,” said the CFO.
The CFO added that the company has implemented a unified solution for SPAIS computer vision systems. This system helps to identify safety violations in production, such as employees being in hazardous areas or without personal protective equipment. When a violation is detected, the program signals it and stores the data in the appropriate systems. This solution is already being used at several Ukrainian enterprises of the group. SPAIS also helps detect damage at Metinvest’s production facilities using drones.
Another solution from the family of computer vision systems at Metinvest enterprises, which has undergone pilot testing and is being implemented for industrial use, is automatic slab quality control.
Dankova emphasized that the group’s assets operate exclusively on proven, uncompromised licensed systems. Microsoft solutions and in-house developments based on the Microsoft technology stack are recognized as priority technologies in this area.
Shareholders of PJSC IC “PZU Ukraine Life Insurance” (Kyiv) at a meeting on June 6 decided to allocate UAH 84.549 million of the profit received in 2023-2024 to the payment of dividends.
As reported by the company in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the total amount of dividends per one ordinary registered share of PJSC IC “PZU Ukraine Life Insurance” has been set at UAH 452.10.
Dividends will be paid directly to shareholders in accordance with Ukrainian law.
As reported, PZU Ukraine Life Insurance collected UAH 312.913 million in premiums in 2024, which is 29.2% more than in 2023. It paid out UAH 55.6 million to customers, which is UAH 9.2 million more than in 2023.
The insurer’s pre-tax financial result amounted to UAH 104.136 million, compared to UAH 176.805 million a year earlier.
The company also reported that it ended last year with a net profit of UAH 84.136 million, which is 41.8% less than in 2023.
PJSC “IC ‘PZU Ukraine Life Insurance’ has been operating since 2003. It is part of the PZU Group, one of the oldest and largest in Poland in terms of gross premiums written (according to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority).
On the eve of Kurban-Hayit, a group of Ukrainian children arrived in Tashkent for rest and rehabilitation at the invitation of the Uzbek side.
The group includes children from regions of Ukraine affected by the war, including Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, and Kyiv.
Over the course of 12 days, the children will undergo a program of health and psychological support.
Each day will be dedicated to a separate theme, from National Traditions Day to Sports and Health Day, with creative competitions and educational excursions.
The humanitarian mission aims to help children restore their inner balance and forget about their worries and shelling, at least for a while.
The children and their escorts were greeted with a ceremony at Tashkent International Airport, after which they left for a health camp in the foothills of the Tien Shan mountains.
Almost all relevant ministries and agencies of Uzbekistan are involved in the implementation of the program.
Pharmacy sales in Ukraine in April 2025 decreased by 6.7% in monetary terms compared to March of this year, to UAH 16.96 billion, while in real terms they remained at 94.562 million packages, which is 0.41% more than in March.
According to information provided to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency by Business Credit, based on its research, the weighted average price of goods in the pharmacy basket at the end of April was 179.36 UAH, which is 7.1% less than in March.
At the same time, pharmacy sales of medicines in April 2025 amounted to more than UAH 13.071 billion, which is 8% less than in March. In real terms, pharmacy sales of medicines in April decreased by 2.15% compared to March, to 65.742 million packages.
The average retail price of medicines in April was 198.83 UAH per unit, which is 6.09 less than in March.
Pharmacy sales of dietary supplements in April decreased by 6.47% in monetary terms, to UAH 1.952 billion, and by almost 1.74% in real terms, to 8.368 million packages. The average price in this segment at the end of April decreased by 4.82% compared to March, to UAH 232.82 per unit.
At the same time, according to Business Credit, in April, the pharmacy segment saw price increases compared to March for dermatological cosmetics (by 11.9%), cosmetics (by 5.54%), and medical equipment (by 5.74%).
As reported, pharmacy sales in Ukraine at the end of 2024 increased in monetary terms by 10.67% compared to 2023, to UAH 192.843 billion, and in real terms decreased by 5%, to over 1.157 billion packages. The average price of goods in the pharmacy basket at the end of 2024 was UAH 166.59, which is 16.53% more than in 2023.
At the same time, pharmacy sales of medicines in 2024 amounted to UAH 151 billion, which is 10.83% more than a year earlier, but in real terms, pharmacy sales of medicines decreased by 5.64% to 810.155 million packages. The weighted average retail price of medicines at the end of 2024 was UAH 186.39 per unit, which is 17.45% more than in 2023.
Pharmacy sales of dietary supplements in 2024 increased by 11.06% in monetary terms, to UAH 19.992 billion, and decreased by almost 3.06% in real terms, to 99.012 million packages. The weighted average price in this segment at the end of 2024 increased by 14.56% compared to 2023, to UAH 201.92 per unit.
According to the Ministry of Health, as of the end of April, there has been a significant decrease in prices for medicines included in the list of the top 100 most popular medicines and in the additional list of 200 medicines. The retail prices of medicines from the additional list (over 200 Ukrainian medicines) fell by 30%.
In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky enacted the National Security and Defense Council’s decision of February 12 on additional measures to ensure the availability of medicines for Ukrainians. According to this decision, the government, manufacturers, and pharmacy chains will determine a list of 100 drugs for which prices will be reduced by 30% starting March 1. It was also planned to ban marketing and promotional services related to the sale of medicines to end consumers from March 1 until the Cabinet of Ministers introduces separate wholesale price references for all medicines.
Sales of used electric vehicles in Ukraine in May increased by 40% compared to the same month in 2024, to over 4,700 units, according to UkrAvtoprom on Telegram.
This volume is actually equal to the figure for April this year.
The average age of such cars was five years.
The top ten used electric cars on the market in May were Tesla Model Y – 544 units; Nissan Leaf – 515 units; Tesla Model 3 – 467 units; KIA Niro EV (322 units); Hyundai Kona Electric (265 units); Chevrolet Bolt (218 units); Volkswagen e-Golf (211 units); Renault Zoe (204 units); Tesla Model S (180 units); and Audi E-Tron Sportback (131 units).
According to the association, in January-May, Ukrainians purchased more than 20,600 imported used electric vehicles, which is 30% more than in the same period in 2024.
As reported, in May, demand for new electric cars grew by 93% compared to the same month in 2024, to 1,257 units, which is also 35% more than in April this year, and in January-May, their registrations increased by 5% compared to the same period last year, to over 4,200 units. units
Last year, according to UkrAvtoprom, registrations of electric vehicles (new and used) increased by 38% compared to 2023, to 51,700 units, including passenger cars by 37% to 50,458 thousand, commercial vehicles by 64% to 1,264 thousand, and two electric buses were also registered. The share of new vehicles was 20%.
