The Swiss authorities have lifted restriction on entry of Ukrainian citizens into the country.
“The restriction on entry into Switzerland has been lifted for citizens of Ukraine since August 2,” the online resource of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports.
It is noted that in order to enter Switzerland, Ukrainians must present a certificate of a full vaccination course (if 14 days have passed since the last dose), a negative PCR test result (must be done a maximum of 72 hours before entry), a negative rapid antigen test result (must be done a maximum of 48 hours before entry) or confirmation that you have had coronavirus in the last six months and have recovered.
At the same time, only a certificate of vaccination with drugs recognized in Switzerland is taken into account, in particular, Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2/Comirnaty/Tozinameran), Moderna (mRNA-1273/Spikevax/COVID-19 vaccine Moderna), AstraZeneca (AZD1222 Vaxzevria/C, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (Ad26.COV2.S), Sinopharm/BIBP (SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell)), Sinovac (CoronaVac).
“For persons who arrived in Switzerland from regions with dangerous variants of the virus and who have been in these regions for more than ten days, and who are not vaccinated or cannot prove that they have had COVID-19 in the last six months, a ten-day quarantine is provided,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Ukraine may receive a $700 million tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September, the adviser to the President of Ukraine on economic issues, Oleh Ustenko, has said.
“The President of the country had a more than successful telephone conversation with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva. The IMF mission is going to Ukraine. In addition, Ukraine has implemented all the preconditions of the IMF. We expect that a new tranche of about $700 million will be received from the IMF rather quickly,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
“I suppose that now we are moving according to the following scenario: in September – the mission, at once the issue of Ukraine is brought up to a meeting of the IMF Board of Directors, and in September I expect that we will receive a new tranche,” the president’s adviser added.
At the same time, Ustenko does not rule out the possibility of extending the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA).
“We have made serious progress, and this was noted. So I do not rule out that the SBA may be extended,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Commerce, following antidumping investigations of seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line, and pressure pipes from Russia, South Korea and Ukraine, has announced the size of the final duties.
According to the information on the official website of the International Trade Administration, the final dumping level (the amount of antidumping duties) for seamless pipes from Korea is set at 4.48% for all Korean companies, including ILJIN Steel Corporation) and 4.44% is the dumping margin with an adjustment to offset export subsidies. For Russian companies, including TMK it is 209.72%, for Ukrainian companies, including Interpipe it is 23.75%.
In addition, countervailing duties have been set for all Korean companies in the amount of 1.789%, for ILJIN Steel Corporation – 1.78%, for all Russian companies – 48.38%.
The duties will be imposed in the event of a positive final decision from the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). The ITC shall make its decision on August 9 of this year, and the order shall be issued on August 16.
The published documents state that 11,471 tonnes were imported from the Russian Federation to the United States in 2020, in 2019 – 39,634 tonnes, in 2018 – 38,024 tonnes, from South Korea – 23,068 tonnes, 17,112 tonnes and 15,839 tonnes, from Ukraine – 32,801 tonnes, 43,667 tonnes and 38,974 tonnes, respectively.
Primary registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine in January-July this year increased by 28% compared to the same period in 2020, to 58,100 units, the Ukrautoprom association reports.
According to the information on its website, in particular registrations in July increased by 16% compared to July 2020, to 9,768 units.
The best result was again demonstrated by Japanese-based Toyota with an increase in registrations by 34%, up to 1,535, followed by French-based Renault, whose registrations decreased by almost 10%, to 1,301 units.
The third line of the rating with an 87% increase (up to 800 cars) was confidently taken by Kia, the fourth was Skoda with the registration of 618 cars (35% more), and the top five monthly leaders with a 5% increase in sales were closed by Hyundai with 465 units.
The ten most popular brands in July also included: Volkswagen with 452 units (more by 25%), Nissan – 439 units (more by 32%), Chery – 412 units (more by 91%), Mitsubishi – 411 units (more by 70%), Suzuki – 384 units (more by 9%).
The bestseller of the month was the compact crossover Toyota RAV4 with 659 registrations.
According to the information and analytical group AUTO-Consulting, published on its website, July sales have traditionally become peak since the beginning of the year and in fact the Ukrainian car market has set a post-crisis sales record – according to the group, sales increased by 10% from July 2020, to 9,800.
“We have not sold so much since February 2014,” the experts say.
According to them, the three leaders in July coincide with the data of Ukrautoprom, but Renault, which took the second position, added 33% in sales, to 1,317 units, and the leader of the rating, Toyota, increased sales by 19%, to 1,552units.
Kia sales in July increased by 9.16%, to 810 units, Skoda raised them by 3%, to 632 cars, Hyundai – by 4%, to 469 units.
Associations of meat and dairy products processors have asked the government to develop and implement a national program for the development and support of the dairy and meat industry to prevent further deepening of the crisis in their activities, Head of the Ukrainian Union of Dairy Enterprises Vadym Chaharovsky said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
“The level of state support for animal husbandry, and we, I emphasize, we all cooperate with our partners-livestock breeders, at the level of UAH 1.2 billion does not meet the development needs of both dairy cattle breeding and the dairy industry,” he said.
According to the head of the union, the crisis in the industry is characterized by a 5.6% decrease in milk production in the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2020, the number of cows fell by 5.8%, to 1.67 million heads, a decrease in the amount received for processing milk was 12%. He said that the production of butter, cheese products, skimmed milk powder and casein decreased the most. The downward trend was aggravated by the growth of imports of dairy products over the specified period from $140 million to $165 million in money terms.
The head of the expert and analytical service of the union Leonid Tulush noted the need to develop program documents to support the dairy processing industry, since its share of the food industry of Ukraine decreased from 17% in 2010 to less than 10% in 2020. He said that the theses given in the agrarian block of the current National Economic Strategy until 2030 are correct, but the document does not contain a specific strategy for the development of the dairy industry.
“It should be taken into account that over time, milk from households will not be present at all in milk processing. Indeed, from 2024 new standards are being introduced, when processing will finally abandon milk from households due to its non-compliance with standards, which, by the way, will be tightened. We need a program document on how to survive in such conditions,” Tulush said.
The net profit of Universal Bank (Kyiv) in January-June 2021 amounted to UAH 1.65 billion, which is 5.7 times more than in the same period of 2020 (UAH 288.614 million).
According to the quarterly reports published on the bank’s website, its net profit for the second quarter of 2021 amounted to UAH 782.255 million, which is 6.3 times more than in the corresponding period last year (UAH 123.96 million).
The bank’s net interest income for the six months increased by 2.2 times compared to the same period in 2020, to UAH 2.2 billion, and net commission income – by 1.5 times, to UAH 1.25 billion.
The bank’s assets in January-June increased by 23.2%, to UAH 41.859 billion, including loans and customer debt – by 1.3 times, to UAH 22.19 billion, and cash and cash equivalents – by 8%, to UAH 4.49 billion.
Universal Bank’s liabilities for the first half of the year increased by 20%, to UAH 37.5 billion, including customer funds – by 18.8%, to UAH 32.526 billion.
The bank’s equity capital in January-June grew by 1.6 times, to UAH 4.3 billion, while the charter capital remained at the level of UAH 4.309 billion.
Universal Bank is part of TAS Group of businessman Sergiy Tigipko, which was founded in 1998 and has assets in financial and industrial sectors, agriculture, real estate, pharmaceuticals and venture projects. In addition to Universal Bank, the financial sector of the group includes TAScombank, two insurance companies, and a number of other organizations.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of June 1, 2021, Universal Bank ranked 11th in terms of total assets (UAH 42.96 billion) among 73 banks operating in the country.
