Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

MACRO SUMMARY OF UKRAINIAN ECONOMY IN NOVEMBER 2021

Ukraine’s GDP growth in 2021 will amount to 3.4% instead of 4.1% expected in April, and economic growth in 2022 is projected at 3.6% instead of 3.7%, such a consensus forecast was posted by the Ministry of Economy on its website.
The direct public debt of Ukraine by the end of 2021 will be cut to 56.9% of GDP, and by 2024 to 47%, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said, presenting a strategy for managing public debt until 2030 at a government meeting on Thursday.
The ICU Group has downgraded its forecast for Ukraine’s GDP growth in 2021 to 2.9% from 5.2% in the spring forecast, Head of ICU Macroeconomic Research Vitaliy Vavryschuk has said.
The real gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in the third quarter of 2021 increased by 2.7% compared to the same period in 2020, the State Statistics Service reported such an updated estimate, while earlier it estimated growth in mid-November at 2.4%.
Alfa Bank (Kyiv) expects real GDP growth in Ukraine in 2022 by 3.4% after its projected growth of 3% over 2021 and a slowdown in the average annual inflation in 2022 to 8.6%, which is 0. 8 percentage points below the expected average annual inflation rate in 2021 (9.4%). Oxford Economics has worsened expectations of real GDP growth in Ukraine in 2022 to 2.8% compared to 3.4% in the November forecast, by the end of 2021 it expects the country’s economy to grow by 3.1% of GDP, as follows from materials of the December forecast, which are available to Interfax-Ukraine.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-October 2021 decreased by 27.7% compared to January-October 2020 – to $2.565 billion from $3.547 billion.
The growth of consumer prices in Ukraine on an annual basis in November 2021 slowed to 10.3% from 10.9% in October and from 11% in September.
The total public debt of Ukraine in November increased by 1.64% in US dollars and amounted to $94.15 billion, as well as by 4.92% in hryvnia – to UAH 2.558 trillion, according to data on the website of the Ministry of Finance, published on Wednesday.
Industrial production in Ukraine in November 2021 increased by 0.4% versus November 2020, which is worse than an increase of 1.4% in October, but better than a decline of 0.7% in September, the State Statistics Service said.
Real wages in Ukraine increased by 8% in November 2021 year-over-year, and compared to October of this year, the growth was 0.9%.
Ukraine in 2021 has a record harvest of grain, legumes and oilseeds of 106 million tonnes: cereals and legumes – 84 million tonnes and oilseeds – 22.6 million tonnes, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Roman Leschenko said on Facebook. Ukraine since the beginning of the 2021/2022 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of December 29 had exported 31.57 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops, which is 21.1% more than the indicators for the same date of the previous MY.
The volume of construction work performed in Ukraine in November 2021 decreased by 2.7% compared to November 2020.
Publisher of “Open4Business”, PhD in Economics, Maksim Urakin.
Previously Experts Business Club created a video summary dedicated to macroeconomics. Full video watch here

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METALLURGICAL ENTERPRISES OF UKRAINE IN 2021 INCREASE EARNINGS FROM EXPORT OF FERROUS METALS BY 81.4%

Metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine in 2021 increased revenues from the export of ferrous metals by 81.4% compared to 2020, to $13.951 billion.
According to the updated statistics released by the State Customs Service on Friday, ferrous metals accounted for 20.49% of total merchandise export earnings over this period, compared to 15.63% in 2020.
In December, proceeds from the export of ferrous metals amounted to $1.34 billion.
At the same time, Ukraine increased imports of ferrous metals by 48.8% in 2021, to $1.547 billion. In December, this figure was $140.660 million.
In addition, in 2021, Ukraine increased the export of metal products by 43%, to $1.293 billion. In December, metal products for $128.729 million were delivered.
Imports of metal products over the past year grew by 28%, to $1.126 billion. In December, metal products for $116.609 million were imported.
As reported, Ukrainian steel enterprises in 2020 reduced revenues from the export of ferrous metals by 12% compared to the previous year, to $7.69 billion. At the same time, Ukraine in 2020 reduced imports of ferrous metals by 17%, to $1.04 billion.
In addition, Ukraine in 2020 reduced the export of metal products by 13.2%, to $904.533 million. Over the year, imports of metal products fell by 20%, to $879.687 million.

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UFUTURE AND INSOFT PARTNERS TO SELL THEIR JOINT OUTSOURCING BUSINESS ITERNAL GROUP TO UST

Ukrainian collaborates to continue cooperation and invest in larger projects
Kyiv, January 17, 2022. – Investment company InSoft Partners and holding company UFuture announce the sale of their joint outsourcing business ITernal Group to an international company headquartered in Aliso Viejo, USA, UST. Deal negotiations lasted from September 2021 to January 2022.
ITernal Group, a joint project of InSoft Partners and UFuture, was launched in 2018. Within 1.5 years, Lenal and Rademade software development businesses from Kyiv, as well as service department of Rozdoum company from Kharkiv, were acquired. Over the next six months, they were merged into a single entity, ITernal Group.
The new owner of ITernal Group, international company UST, has been working in the software development market for over 22 years. The acquisition of ITernal will allow UST to expand its Eastern European presence: the company did not have an office in Ukraine before.
As part of the business reformatting, InSoft Partners also withdrew from the educational project ucode IT academy in favor of its strategic partner UFuture. The companies have been developing ucode IT academy since 2018. During this time, they created a unique software product for students training and several joint educational programs with Ubisoft, CISCO, Ajax Systems, Squad and others.
UFuture will continue to develop ucode IT academy as an educational platform within its own social investment projects to develop Ukraine’s innovation potential. Now ucode IT academy works at UNIT.City innovation park in Kyiv.
“With ITernal Group creation we tested the idea of several small IT companies merging for reducing money spending and sustainable scaling of business. We deliberately went into small businesses and merged them not consistently, but simultaneously to test our business skills within small companies. Merging small companies into a large entity and its strengthening due to the reputation of majority shareholders has helped the ITernal Group to start cooperation with high-level clients. Successful completion of the business cycle (development of an idea – several companies buying – merging them into one entity – selling to a large strategist) confirmed our idea. Together with UFuture, we plan to use this model in larger projects,” said InSoft Partners founder Vitaly Gorovoy.
“Our partnership with InSoft Partners is just beginning. The sale of ITernal Group was, firstly, highly profitable, secondly, showed us scale prospects. I am glad that we have attracted a great international company UST to Ukraine. This is not only an international investment in the development of the project, but also new experience, knowledge and opportunities for talented Ukrainian teams,” said Vasyl Khmelnytsky, founder of the UFuture holding company.
Additional information
UFuture is a holding company of Ukrainian entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky that integrates his business and impact-investment projects.
The company has a diversified portfolio of assets in the fields of real estate, infrastructure, industry, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and IT. Currently, UFuture’s assets are estimated at $500 million, and the total capitalization of the businesses it invested in is up to $1 billion.
InSoft Partners is an investment company that buys stakes in IT service companies and helps them grow. Specialization: IT business value increasing, scaling, M&A. Core Value, Cloudfresh are among of their completed projects.
UST, for more than 22 years, has worked side by side with the world’s best companies to make a real impact through transformation. Powered by technology, inspired by people, and led by our purpose, we partner with our clients from design to operation. Through our nimble approach, we identify their core challenges, and craft disruptive solutions that bring their vision to life. With deep domain expertise and a future-proof philosophy, we embed innovation and agility into our clients’ organizations – delivering measurable value and lasting change across industries, and around the world. Together, with over 28,000 employees in 28 countries, we build for boundless impact – touching billions of lives in the process.

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PLANE WITH FIFTH PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE POROSHENKO LANDS IN KIEV

The plane with the fifth president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, landed at the Zhuliany airport (Kyiv).
According to the airport’s online information desk, the plane landed at 09:03.
Poroshenko returned to Ukraine by a Warsaw-Kyiv scheduled flight.
Members of the European Solidarity faction, who flew to Poroshenko the day before, and the wife of the fifth president, are with him on board.
As reported, Poroshenko was met at the airport by about a thousand people.

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UKRAINE AND AZERBAIJAN SIGNES A DECLARATION ON COOPERATION IN PROJECTS OF MUTUAL INTEREST OF STATES

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reported that he and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev had signed a joint declaration on readiness to implement specific projects in areas of mutual interest of the countries.”This is mutual support for sovereignty and territorial integrity, ensuring peace and stability in the Black Sea-Caspian region and beyond, intensifying cooperation in countering hybrid threats, strengthening cooperation in the defense industry, deepening cooperation within international and regional organizations and forums,” Zelensky wrote on his Facebook page.Zelensky said that Ukraine and Azerbaijan have historically had close and fruitful cooperation and will soon mark 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the states.The head of the Ukrainian state noted an increase in trade between Ukraine and Azerbaijan in 2021, despite the coronavirus pandemic. According to him, the countries do not intend to stop there.”With Mr. President Aliyev, we set ourselves the goal of doubling the volume of bilateral trade in the next two years,” Zelensky said.In addition, plans were discussed in detail with the Azerbaijani delegation on how to fill with new content the cooperation between the two countries in trade, economic, fuel and energy, military-technical, infrastructure, aircraft building, agro-industrial, cultural and humanitarian spheres.The parties also agreed to hold a meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation in the first half of 2022. In particular, the plans include holding a meeting of the Council of Presidents of Ukraine and Azerbaijan.”I am convinced that the agreements we have reached begin an even more effective, substantive and mutually beneficial stage of strategic partnership of our states,” Zelensky summed up.

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