Consumer prices in Ukraine in May 2020 increased 0.3%, while in March and April they rose by 0.8%, the State Statistics Service said on Tuesday.
In May 2019, price growth was higher – 0.7%, therefore, inflation in April 2020 year-over-year slowed to 1.7% from 2.1% in April, 2.3% in March, 4.1%.
According to the State Statistics Service, underlying inflation in May this year fell to 0.1% from 0.4% in April and the jump to 1.3% in March, whereas before that it had been falling for three consecutive months. Last May, underlying inflation was at the level of 0.2%, as a result, year-over-year it slowed down to 3%.
In May, prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 1.2% in the consumer market. Most of all prices of eggs and fruits went up (by 16.6% and 15.8%). Prices for grain processing products, rice, fish and fish products, and vegetables increased 2.3-0.8%. At the same time, meat and meat products, lard, butter, sugar, sunflower oil, sour-milk products, milk fell in price by 1.6-0.2%.
Prices for alcoholic beverages and tobacco products increased 1.1%, which is linked to a rise in price of tobacco products by 2.0%.
Clothing and shoes prices fell by 1.4%, in particular, clothing – by 2.0%, and shoes – by 0.7%
The decrease in prices (tariffs) for housing, water, electricity, gas and other types of fuel by 2.8% was mainly due to the reduction in the price of natural gas by 16.8%.
Transport prices decreased 2.0%, primarily due to cheaper fuel and lubricants by 8.6%.
The National Bank of Ukraine at the end of January improved its inflation forecast for 2020 from 5% to 4.8%, but in April it worsened this indicator to 6%.
According to the central bank, in the first half of this year, inflation in annual terms will be 4.8%.
The Ukrainian Wind Energy Association (UWEA) and the European-Ukrainian Energy Agency (EUEA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ukrainian government regarding the improvement of conditions of support of renewable energy producers, UWEA Board Chairman Andriy Konechenkov has said.
“The memorandum was signed on the basis of voluntary restructuring,” Konechenkov said after signing.
At the same time, according to him, the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy (UARE), which participated in the negotiations, refused to sign the memorandum because of disagreement with the government’s position regarding the further development of solar energy, in particular, the termination of the existing system for supporting SES in the form of feed-in tariffs on July 31, 2020.
“Premier Shmyhal gave the UARE another day to talk with members of the association,” Konechenkov said.
“I turned to the prime minister with a proposal to meet the challenges of solar generation, but he, as well as the MPs from the Rada energy committee who were present during the talks, said that this is the maximum that we managed to agree with the majority of the MPs and the relevant ministries. This is the option for the memorandum,” Konechenkov said.
At the same time, he said that, in his opinion, there will be no stopping of solar projects due to the termination of the feed-in tariffs for them, since all [companies] will go to green auctions.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Wednesday, June 10, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on resolving problematic issues in the field of renewable energy, the government has reported.
“According to the document, renewable energy producers accept the terms of voluntary restructuring of feed-in tariffs, which provides for their reduction. In particular, for all solar electric power facilities the tariffs will be reduced by 15%, for facilities generating electricity from wind – by 7.5%,” the government said in a statement on its official website on Wednesday evening.
Ukraine is committed to determining and approving annual quotas for supporting green energy and is providing auctions for the distribution of such quotas.
According to the terms of the memorandum, the responsibility of renewable energy producers is toughened.
From August 1 of this year, new solar power plants with a capacity of more than 1 MW can be launched with government support only by participating in auctions.
“We are in favor of building green energy and, over time, such energy will be more widely distributed as the cleanest. But it is important for us how much it will cost. If the price of electricity produced at new solar power plants is determined at an auction, it will not be high tariff,” Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said.
Mining enterprises of Ukraine in January-May 2020 increased the export of iron ore raw materials in natural units by 11.9% compared to the same period of 2019, to 18.875 million tonnes.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service, foreign exchange earnings from iron ore raw materials exports increased by 5.7%, to $1.51 billion over that period.
Iron ore raw materials were exported mainly to China (58.06% of supplies in monetary terms), Poland (10.07%) and the Czech Republic (6.87%).
Iron ore raw materials imported to Ukraine from the Netherlands to Ukraine amounted to $28,000, from Sweden, to some $10,000, from Germany to some $1,000 and from Hungary to some $1,000 in a total volume of 84 tonnes over two months of 2020, while 45 tonnes of iron ore with cost of $24,000 were imported in January-May 2019.
Capital investment in Ukraine in January-March this year fell by 35.5% after growing by 21.2% in the fourth quarter of last year, the State Statistics Service said on Tuesday. According to the State Statistics Service, in the first quarter of this year, UAH 76.914 billion of capital investment was disbursed (excluding the temporarily occupied Crimea, Sevastopol and the territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions).
Among the regions, a significant decrease in capital investment in January-March 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 was recorded in Kherson (by 75.4%), Ivano-Frankivsk (by 49.5%) and Zakarpattia (by 49.2%) regions.
Among the industries, capital investment growth in the first quarter of this year was recorded in the provision of other types of services – by 51.4%, telecommunications – by 41.4% and IT and telecom – by 8.7%.
At the same time, in the field of art, sports, entertainment and recreation, the drop in investment amounted to 79.1%, aviation – 77.3%, catering – 74.2%, scientific achievements and developments – 73.2% and forestry – 72%.
The own funds of enterprises and organizations remained the main source of financing for capital investment, thanks to which 73.2% of the total volume of all investments was made.
A significant share of capital investments was made in machinery, equipment and vehicles – 41.7%, buildings and structures – 49.3% of all investments.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to provide a senior secured loan of up to EUR 7 million to Baryshevska Grain Company LLC, the main operating company of the Grain Alliance Group, under the Resilience Framework. The Loan will be used to finance working capital needs of the Group amid the adverse impact of COVID-19 on its business.
According to a posting on the bank’s website, the project was approved in the context of the EBRD’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The loan will support the group’s liquidity and help it withstand the COVID-19-caused crisis. Therefore, it will help the company to preserve its capital expenditure plans, which were part of the original project between the Bank and Grain Alliance approved in 2019,” the EBRD said.
The original transition impact objectives are as follows: improvement in infrastructure for logistics, storage and transportation for export facilitation especially for small third-party farmers and installation of two biomass-fired grain dryers with total capacity of 24 MW utilizing sunflower residues, including husk, dust and broken kernels generated during the operational activity of the group.
The EBRD said that the status of the project is pending final review.
