Ukraine should be integrated in the European Union and NATO, but it should have deeply developed relations with those regions of the world where it sees its national interests, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba said.
“I am deeply convinced that it would be a big mistake for Ukraine to limit itself solely to its western vector. The world is much bigger, much more complex, there are a lot of opportunities in the world,” Kuleba said on Ukrainian television.
At the same time, the deputy prime minister said he sees Ukraine as a member of the European Union and NATO.
“I see Ukraine as a state, integrated European and Euro-Atlantic state, which has deep developed relations with those regions of the world where it sees its national interests,” Kuleba said.
Kuleba said he sees Asia as such region as “the heart” of the world’s economy is now beating there.
“It’s China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore – that’s where the economic heart of the world is beating now,” Kuleba said.
The strategy for the privatization of state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrspyrt envisages the transfer of property of the SOE as a pool of fixed assets of industrial sites to the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) before June 1, 2020.
According to the presentation of Ukrspyrt, the necessary conditions for privatization are the completion of the registration of property of state-owned distilleries.
Now out of 41 Ukrspyrt’s industrial sites, 18 have all the property registered, another 18 have partially registered property, and five have been seized.
The main advantage of this privatization option for Ukrspyrt is the ability to transfer facilities for privatization before June 1, 2020.
Ratio of fertility and mortality by Ukrainian regions as of Dec 31, 2019
The potential reintegration of Donbas might add up to 1.5 percentage points (pp) to Ukraine’s GDP growth during two or three years, Bank of America (BofA) has said in its analytical review.
BofA said that the potential integration of territories could increase nominal GDP by 3-5 pp and accelerate growth by 1-1.5 pp in the period after the post-war recovery.
The analysts said that the post-war recovery might be partially financed with external donor assistance.
Both Donetsk and Luhansk regions accounted for more than 15.7% of Ukraine’s GDP in 2012, before the war. The contribution of these regions, still under Ukrainian control, fell to about 12.7% of GDP in 2017. BofA believes that this might indicate a one-time increase in relation to nominal GDP values of at least 3%.
According to the analysts, the normalization of economic relations with the region could accelerate the growth of real GDP in the first year by 0.5 pp.
The share of shadow operations in Ukraine in 2018 amounted to 23.8% of GDP, or UAH 846 billion, according to preliminary results of an Ernst & Young study supported by Mastercard, published by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
The receipts of the general fund of Ukraine’s national budget totaled UAH 42.6 billion in January 2020, which is UAH 13.8 billion less than the monthly target, thus it was met by 76%, the Finance Ministry has reported, referring to tentative data from the State Treasury Service of Ukraine.
Morgan Stanley has improved the forecast for the growth of the Ukrainian economy in 2020 to 3.6% of GDP from 3.2% of GDP in the October forecast, according to the bank’s report available to Interfax-Ukraine.
The potential reintegration of Donbas might add up to 1.5 percentage points (pp) to Ukraine’s GDP growth during two or three years, Bank of America (BofA) has said in its analytical review.
The growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in October-December 2019 amounted to 1.5% compared to the same period in 2018, while in the previous quarters the growth rate was higher: 4.1% in the third, 4.6% in the second and 2.5% in the first.
Growth of Ukraine’s GDP in 2019 slowed from 3.4% in 2018 to 3.3%, while the drivers of this growth have changed, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine said.
Capital investments in Ukraine in 2019 increased by 15.5%, while in 2018 their growth was 16.4%, and a year earlier some 22.1%, the State Statistics Service has said.
The surplus of Ukraine’s foreign trade in services in 2019 increased by 63.5% compared to 2018, to $8.71 billion, the State Statistics Service has said.
Inflation in Ukraine in January 2020 amounted to 0.2% compared to 1% in January 2019, which led to its annual decline to 3.2% from 4.1%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) is creating a contact group of the monetary and foreign exchange markets for exchange of information and opinions among their participants regarding the real state of these markets and their development.
The total state debt of Ukraine in January 2020, due to the weakening of the hryvnia exchange rate by 5.2%, in U.S. dollar terms decreased by 1.1%, or by $940 million, to $83.43 billion, the Finance Ministry has said.
Industrial production in Ukraine in January 2020 decreased by 5.1% compared to January 2019, while in January last year a decrease of 3.3% was recorded compared to the same month of the previous year, the State Statistics Service has said.
Ukraine since the beginning of the marketing year 2019/2020 (MY, July-June) and as of February 24, 2020 had exported 39.48 million tonnes of grain and legumes, which is 7.65 million tonnes more than on the same date of last MY.
Transport enterprises of Ukraine reduced cargo transportation by 12.3% in January 2020 compared to January 2019, to 44 million tonnes, the State Statistics Service has reported.
The volume of construction work in Ukraine in January-2020 increased by 3.6% compared with January 2019 and amounted to UAH 7.4 billion, in December 2019 compared to December a year earlier by 6.8%.
Ukraine has increased exports of IT services in 2019 by 30.2%, to $4.17 billion, according to a posting on the website of the IT Ukraine association, referring to data of Ukraine’s balance of payment.
Ukraine’s retail trade turnover in January 2020 in comparable prices increased by 12.1% compared with January 2019, the State Statistics Service has reported.
Structure of export of services in Ukraine in 2019 (graphically)
