National bank of ukraine’s official rates as of 14/06/19
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Spanish-based Inditex SA, one of the world’s largest clothing retailers, plans to launch online sales of the Zara brand in Ukraine in the fall-winter of 2019, the company said in its report for the first fiscal quarter of 2019 (February 1 – May 30).
“Inditex continues to expand its global, fully integrated store and online platform. Inditex remains very active in differentiating its store database … During the autumn-winter campaign, Zara will launch an online store in South Africa, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Colombia, the Philippines, and Ukraine,” the report says.
As of the end of 2018, nine Zara stores and two Zara Home stores were operating in Ukraine.
Overall, Inditex Group consisted of 65 stores in Ukraine, in particular, such brands as Pull & Bear (14), Massimo Dutti (6), Bershka (14), Stradivarius (12), Oysho (7), and Uterqüe (1).
According to the company’s report, its pretax profit in Ukraine in 2018 amounted to EUR28 million.
Inditex Group has been operating in Ukraine since 2008
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided a loan of EUR 3 million to the Ukrainian woodworking company Zunami to finance the investment program, EBRD Senior Adviser for External Affairs Anton Usov has said.
“As a result of the project, the company will introduce new methods of waste management, which will allow reducing the volume of oak raw materials needed for production of lamella by 23%, or 3,000 tonnes per year,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
According to Usov, the loan funds will be supplemented by means of technical cooperation of the European Union in the amount of up to EUR 70,000 under the EU4Business program and a stimulating grant of more than $170,000 from the Global Environment Facility under the FINTECC program.
Zunami LLC (Volyn region) was founded in 2001. The company is engaged in a full cycle of wood processing. Its capacity is 2 million square meters per year. Zunami produces wooden flooring and solid biofuel – oak shavings pellets.
Wizz Air will raise frequency of flights from Lviv airport to Slovakia, Poland, Germany from Oct 20
KYIV. June 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Hungarian low cost airline Wizz Air from October 20 will increase the frequency of flights from Lviv International Airport to Bratislava (Slovakia), Wroclaw, Gdansk (Poland), Berlin and Dortmund (Germany) for the winter of 2019/2020 season.
According to the airport’s Facebook page, in particular, such plans are linked to the popularity of these airline destinations from/to Lviv, the average monthly workload of which in 2019 is 83%.
Thus, the number of flights to Bratislava will increase from two to five flights a week. They will be performed on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
The number of flights to Wroclaw will rise from three to five flights. They will be performed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Flights to Gdansk and Berlin will be carried out twice as often – four times a week (on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays).
The number of flights in the direction of Dortmund will grow from two to three per week (on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has predicted growth in exports of rapeseeds from Ukraine in 2019/2020 agricultural year (September-August) by 1 million tonnes year-over-year, to 3.5 million tonnes.
According to a June report of USDA, the forecst for exports of oilseeds was revised downwards to 5.55 million tonnes (a decrease by 10,000 tonnes compared with the May report), that for oilseed crushing – to 16.7 million tonnes (a decease by 10,000 tonnes).
USDA also slightly reviewed downwards the forecasts for 2019/2020 agri-year for export of Ukrainian vegetale oil, to 6.1 million tonnes (a decrease by 2,000 tonnes) and oilseed cake, to 5.92 million (a decline by 8,000 tonnes).
USDA in June left unchanged the forecast for exports of sunflower seeds for 2019/2020 agri-year: it would be 150,000 tonnes, meal – 4.7 million tonnes and oil – 5.6 million tonnes.
USDA reviewed downwards the forecast for Ukrainian soybeans: exports of soybean meal to 1.9 million tonnes (a decrease by 100,000 tonnes), exports of soybeans – to 1 million tonnes (a decline by 80,000 tonnes over the smaller volumes of its production).
The USDA’s forecast for oilseed crushing in Ukraine for this season is 16.65 million tonnes, oilseed exports – 5.15 million tonnes, meal exports – 5.17 million tonnes and vegetable oil exports – 6.21 million tonnes.
The Kyivstar mobile communications operator has launched Network Expert application for analyzing the quality of the network operation, the operator reported on Wednesday.
Reports that subscribers will transmit through the application will help plan network expansion and installation of new equipment.
The application helps to check the quality of coverage of the mobile operator’s network, the quality of telephone calls, the speed of the mobile Internet, and the quality of service provided in roaming.
The Network Expert monitors the network status of the operator’s network and, in the event of difficulties, sends reports directly to the company’s technical experts. Also, subscribers can independently check and send information through the application, without the need to make calls to the Call Center, Kyivstar said.
The application is available for Android-smartphones.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian mobile operator. It provides communication and data services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 4G. As of the end of 2018, 26.4 million mobile subscribers and about 0.9 million fixed Internet clients used its services.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is looking for ways to cut the energy tariffs for households, but it should be done in a way so not to devaluate the hryvnia, arouse additional inflation or economic crisis, representative of the head of state in the government Andriy Gerus has written on his Facebook page. According to him, work in this direction is underway. The president has already held two meetings devoted to this issue, and to fulfill the task, an efficient parliament and new laws are needed.
Now, Zelensky’s team is developing a comprehensive plan to reduce housing and utility tariffs for households, where possible, without negative side effects, the presidential envoy to the Cabinet of Ministers said.
One of the necessary conditions for this plan is the demonopolization of energy markets, Gerus said, expressing the hope that the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine will eventually begin to work fully.
According to him, it is also necessary to achieve growth in gas production (for which it is necessary to attract foreign investors to this area). At the same time, Gerus added that the stoppage of gas imports, according to the calculations of the Zelensky’s team, will reduce its price for households by 20-30%.
The president’s team also understands that some categories of the population are unfairly deprived of subsidies, the rules should be reviewed. To find funds in the budget for their payment, some oligarchs will have to be deprived of tax breaks and preferences, Gerus said.
He also said about unofficial information in the press about the increase in gas tariffs for households by 10-15% and electricity tariffs – by 150%.
“Our opinion was: these steps cannot be done without trust and understanding of society. Before this, there is a need to demonstrate to Ukrainians firm and fair actions of regulators regarding energy monopolies, and also show that punishment is incurred for stealing tariff funds. As I understand, our opinion has been taken into account,” Gerus said.
