Revenues from the sale of alcoholic beverages in Ukraine in February 2025 amounted to UAH 11 billion, which is UAH 1 billion (8%) less than in January 2025 and UAH 5.5 billion (33%) less than in December 2024,
Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, said on his Telegram channel.
He noted that the number of licenses issued in the first two months of this year increased by 18,435 units compared to December 2024.
At the same time, the average amount of revenue per license in February 2025 is UAH 106.8 thousand, which is UAH 8 thousand (7%) less than in January 2025 and UAH 88.3 thousand (45%) less than in December 2024.
“As you can see, the trade in alcoholic beverages shows a similar trend to the trade in another excisable good – tobacco products. We are tracking the reasons for such dynamics,” the head of the parliamentary committee summarized.
As reported, Hetmantsev drew the attention of law enforcement agencies to the reduction in February 2025 in revenue from the sale of tobacco products to UAH 9.6 billion, which is 8% (UAH 0.8 billion) less than the previous month. At the same time, the number of valid licenses for the retail sale of tobacco products increased by 12488 units in the first two months of the year and reached 75613.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increased sales of foreign currency on the interbank market last week by $98.4 million, or 18%, to $643.6 million, according to the regulator’s statistics on its website.
According to the statistics, the central bank has not bought any foreign currency over the past two weeks.
Last week, the National Bank bought the most foreign currency since the beginning of March, but it is still less than in February this year and roughly equal to the amount of foreign currency purchased in the same week in March last year.
Data released by the regulator during this time show that the negative balance between the volume of foreign currency purchases by households and the volume of foreign currency sales narrowed last week from $26.89 million on Monday to $20.24 on Thursday.
The official hryvnia exchange rate weakened by 2 kopecks to 41.5277 UAH/$1 over the week.
The same was the case on the cash market, with a narrow spread of 41.46-41.56 UAH/$1.
‘Since the beginning of March, the Ukrainian foreign exchange market has undergone significant changes in the dynamics of the dollar. While in February the dollar was gradually strengthening, in early March it began to decline, followed by a gradual recovery after 10 March,’ analysts of the currency exchange market operator KYT Group commented on the market situation in their March review.
According to them, the Ukrainian cash FX market was affected by a decline in demand for the dollar following a large-scale import of cash currency in February: according to the NBU, $1.316 billion in cash dollars and the equivalent of $450 million in euros were imported into Ukraine.
The NBU’s interventions help to smooth out exchange rate volatility and maintain a controlled situation on the market, but the increase in budget spending in March traditionally creates additional demand for foreign currency, which may affect the correction of the hryvnia exchange rate, KYT Group experts added. They expect that in the short term, over the next 1-3 weeks, the dollar is likely to remain in the range of UAH 41.30-42.30/$1.
As reported, the NBU’s net interventions in February fell to $3bn from $3.75bn in January.
In February 2025, Ukrainians’ purchases of foreign currency exceeded sales by $0.95bn, which is also down from $1.48bn in January this year.
Ukraine’s international reserves as of 1 March 2025, according to preliminary data, amounted to $40.15 billion, which is 6.7%, or $2.86 billion, less than a month ago.
The Cabinet of Ministers has set the average annual rate of the official hryvnia/US dollar exchange rate in the 2025 state budget at 45 UAH/$1.
https://interfax.com.ua/news/economic/1058312.html
Rice prices fell after India lifted the last of its existing restrictions on rice exports.
The price per ton of benchmark white Thai rice, which was $669 in January 2024, had fallen to $405 by last week, the Financial Times said. The decision to lift the restrictions was prompted by India’s desire to boost agricultural and food exports to boost farmers’ incomes amid a general economic slowdown in the country.
According to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, the plan is to increase shipments to $100 billion by 2030 from $48.15 billion in 2023-2024.
“Last year, about $50 billion worth of products were exported from India,” the minister had said earlier. – I hope to see a triple-digit figure, the $100 billion mark.”
Export restrictions were imposed in the country in 2022. As a result of the decision, the price of white Thai rice jumped to its highest since 2008. India began easing the restrictive measures in September last year. India’s rice exports, which stood at 14 million tons in 2023, could reach a record 21.5 million tons between September 2024 and October 2025, according to S&P Global estimates.
The return of Indian rice will negatively impact exporters from Pakistan, which has gained market shares in Indonesia and East Africa amid declining supplies from India. The US Department of Agriculture estimates rice exports from Pakistan for the 12 months to May 2025 at just 5.8 million tons, down 11.4% from the same period a year earlier.
India is a leading supplier of milled rice, which is in high demand in African countries. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, Indian supplies accounted for more than 60% of rice imports of 17 African countries and more than 80% of imports of nine, including Somalia, in 2022.
In 2024, the owner of the online medical goods ordering service tabletki.ua, MTPK LLC (Kyiv), increased its net profit by 1.96 times compared to 2023 – up to UAH 598.228 million.
This is evidenced by the data of the opendata.bot system.
According to the system, the company’s revenue increased by 1.95 times to UAH 715.433 million.
As reported, in February, Kyivstar, the largest mobile operator, applied to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) with a second application for the purchase of MTPC LLC. Kyivstar filed its first application for the acquisition of MTPC in November 2024, but on November 29, the Committee returned it as not meeting the requirements of the regulation on the procedure for reviewing applications and cases on the concentration of business entities.
Tabletki.ua is a website and app that allows you to find and book medicines and pharmaceuticals at a particular pharmacy.
According to the service, by the end of 2023, the service had more than 10 million users and more than 12 thousand partner pharmacies.
The owners of MTPK LLC are Oleksandr, Natalia and Yevhen Muravschyk (23%, 23% and 10%, respectively), Yuriy Savin (20%), Volodymyr Osmachko (15%) and Vadym Rohatynskyi (9%).
For the first time in the history of Central Asia, the 150th anniversary assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will be held in Tashkent.
This event will be held on April 5-9, 2025 at the Congress Hall in Tashkent City. About 2,000 delegates from 180 countries, 15 observer states, and more than 25 international and inter-parliamentary organizations are expected to attend.
The main theme of the upcoming Assembly will be “Parliamentary Movement for Social Development and Justice”. The Assembly will discuss issues such as poverty reduction, creation of decent working conditions, support for social inclusion, and increased participation of vulnerable groups in decision-making.
The Assembly will result in the adoption of IPU resolutions and the Tashkent Declaration.
