Volumes of cargo transportation IN Jan-Nov of 2020, MLN tons.
The share of vacant space in the office real estate market in Kyiv at the end of 2020 amounted to 12.5%, whereas in the previous year this figure was 9%, NAI Ukraine has reported.
“Despite the rather impressive new supply in 2020 – almost 80,000 square meters – and vacating of space due to the crisis, the office market withstood the blow due to deferred demand and preliminary lease agreements. The total market vacancy did not show significant growth – 12.5% at the end of the year compared to 9% at the end of 2019,” the company said in the report.
According to NAI, rental rates in the office market fell by an average of 20% at the end of 2020: to $20-30 per square meter in class A offices and to $12-23 per square meter in class B offices. In addition, discounts on rent of up to 50% set in a number of properties due to quarantine in the spring were mostly no longer in effect by autumn.
The lease of an office by Vodafone in the Sigma business center (7,500 square meters), by EvoPlay in the business center on. Leipzig Street (4,500 square meters), the moving of Frag Lab to the Veneciansky business center (3,600 square meters) were among the largest deals in 2020. According to preliminary data, the volume of gross absorption of offices in Kyiv last year amounted to about 85,000 square meters.
At the same time, the planned volume of new supply (about 370,000 square meters) and the growing popularity of flexible offices will continue to intensify competition in the market in 2021. Conventional offices may experience a lack of demand and, as a result, lower rental rates, NAI experts said.
“In 2021, the remote work is likely to continue to prevail: this is fully true for the first half of the year, and from the second half of the year there is a high probability of a gradual return to work in offices. This is a question of the speed and efficiency of vaccinations and quarantine measures. Nevertheless, experience of effective work online will bring changes to the organization of office spaces forever – various hybrid models (remote work of some employees, combining offline and online working days in weeks with hot desking, etc.) will most likely continue taking place after the stabilization of the situation with the pandemic,” the company said.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has lifted the ban on the conduct of transactions by individuals as the forward purchase or sale of foreign currency, the purchase or sale of foreign exchange and bank metals on margin trading and the settlements in foreign currency to buy government securities denominated in foreign currency, the press service of the central bank said on Saturday.
The changes were approved by NBU Board resolution No. 3 dated January 15 posted on the regulator’s website. The document came into force on January 17.
According to it, the NBU also lifted the prohibition for legal entities to carry out transactions for the forward sale of foreign currency and the prohibition on banks’ swaps with resident individuals, if the first part of such an operation involves the sale of foreign currency or bank metals to the client.
In addition, the National Bank allowed banks and non-bank financial institutions to buy foreign currency from the population for non-cash funds in hryvnia through self-service terminals and approved the rules of conducting relevant operations. In particular, after the sale of currency through payment devices, hryvnia funds will be credited to the personal current accounts of individuals.
In order to promote the use of digital analogs instead of paper documents, the National Bank clarified the requirements for the implementation of transfers of funds in foreign currency by individuals outside Ukraine and the receipt of such transfers from abroad.
In particular, the regulator added the ability for individuals to use digital passports in the Diia mobile application when carrying out these operations, where information is displayed in electronic form, which contains an ID card and a biometric passport of a citizen of Ukraine.
According to the estimates of the National Bank, the easing of these requirements will ensure the implementation of further steps on the path of currency liberalization, as well as contribute to the expansion of opportunities for businesses and individuals to hedge currency risks, further develop new services provided by authorized institutions in the field of currency exchange transactions and the use of digital documents in foreign exchange transactions.
Map of internet coverings of ukrainian basic mobile operators in Jan 2021
The Opel brand in Ukraine in 2020 increased sales of cars (passenger cars and LCVs) by 84% compared to 2019, to 732 vehicles with an overall decline of this market by 2.2% (to 95,500 vehicles), the press service of the PSA group’s representative office in Ukraine, Peugeot Citroen Ukraine, has reported.
According to the report, sales growth was primarily driven by well-known models of the brand: the Opel Grandland X crossover (248 vehicles sold, which is 92% more), the Opel Crossland X compact crossover (174 vehicles, twice more) and the Opel Astra sedan (156 vehicles, 28% more).
Last year, several new models also debuted on the Ukrainian market, in particular, the sixth generation Opel Corsa, sales of which began in the middle of the year, and 37 cars were sold at the end of the year.
In addition, sales of Opel Combo commercial vehicles (passenger version of Combo Life and commercial van Combo Cargo) began in 2020, of which 84 were sold.
“Thanks to the launch of the line of commercial vehicles, the Opel brand is returning to the LCV segment again as a serious player and intends to significantly increase sales in 2021,” the press service said, specifying that last year a full line of Opel commercial vehicles was presented in Ukraine: Combo Life, Zafira Life, Combo Cargo, Vivaro, and Movano.
According to the report, despite all the problems and limitations of 2020, Opel continued developing its own dealer network in Ukraine, in particular, two new dealers were opened in the autumn of the year: Addis-Motors (Odesa) and Newton (Cherkasy), which are the only representatives of the brand in these cities.
At the end of the year, the brand’s dealer network includes 11 representative offices (three in Kyiv, one each in Dnipro, Lviv, Zaporizhia, Poltava, Kharkiv, Khmelnitsky, Odesa and Cherkasy), and four service partners who can carry out service without losing the guarantee: in Kyiv (two), Ivano-Frankivsk and Zhytomyr.
Oxford Economics has improved its forecast for Ukraine’s GDP fall in 2020 to 4.6% compared to 4.9% of GDP in the November forecast, according to the December forecast.
The fall of the Ukrainian economy in 2020 may amount to 5.5% of GDP with a further recovery of growth by 3.5-4% in the next two years, analysts at Deutsche Bank expect.
The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) expects the economy to fall by 5.1% of GDP in 2020, according to the KSE economic activity review for the fourth quarter of this year.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) preliminarily estimates the loss of Ukraine’s GDP from the enhanced quarantine in January 2021 at 0.2%, Deputy NBU Governor Dmytro Sologub has said.
The fall in the gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in July-September 2020 amounted to 3.5% compared to the same period in 2019, the State Statistics Service confirmed its preliminary assessment, published in mid-November.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-October 2020 decreased by 71.4% compared to January-October 2019, to $3.354 billion from $8.496 billion, the State Statistics Service reported on Tuesday.
The growth of consumer prices in Ukraine in November 2020 accelerated to 1.3% from 1% in October and 0.5% in September after falling by 0.2% in August and 0.6% in July, reported the State Statistics Service on Wednesday.
The 2021 national budget provides for a deficit of 5.5% of GDP, or UAH 246.6 billion, according to the text of the law released on the website of the Finance Ministry on Monday.
Most members of the Monetary Policy Committee of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expect the key policy rate to rise to 6.5-7.5% in 2021 due to the predicted rise in inflationary pressures, the regulator’s website said on Monday.
The total public debt of Ukraine in November 2020 increased by 1.16% in U.S. dollars, to $ 84.24 billion and by 1.27% in hryvnias, to UAH 2.398 trillion, according to data on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
The prices of industrial producers in Ukraine in November 2020 increased by 2%, while in October by 3.8%, in September by 1.7%, in August by 2.3%, in July by 0.4%, and in June and May their decline was recorded by 2% and 0.6%, respectively, the State Statistics Service has said.
Industrial production in Ukraine in November 2020 compared to November 2019 decreased by 0.3%, while in October by 5%, in September by 4.4%, in August 5.3%, in July 4.2%, June 5.6%, May 12.2% and April 16.2%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
Since the beginning of the new 2020/2021 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of December 11, Ukraine has exported 22.89 million tonnes of grains and legumes, which is 3.8 million tonnes less than year-over-year.
The transport companies of Ukraine in January-November 2020 reduced transportation of goods by 11.6% compared to the same period in 2019, to 546.6 million tonnes, the State Statistics Service has reported.
Ukrainian transport companies carried 2.345 billion passengers in January-November 2020, which is 39.9% less than in the same period in 2019, the State Statistics Service has reported.
Retail trade turnover in Ukraine in November 2020 increased by 12.1% compared to the same month in 2019 in comparable prices, while in the previous month the growth was 15.2%, the State Statistics Service has said.
