Ukraine exported more than 20.5 million tonnes of wheat and 30.3 million tonnes of corn in the 2019/2020 agricultural year (July-June), President of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) Mykola Horbachev has said. “The 2019-2020 grain season was successful. We produced a record number of grains and oilseeds. The grain and oilseeds harvest was a little over 98 million tonnes, which is an absolute record for Ukraine. A record amount of wheat was grown – more than 28 million tonnes. Wheat exports amounted to more than 20 million tonnes. Corn export exceeded all expectations. We exported more than 30 million tonnes. This year was successful,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
The head of the UGA predicted that by 2026 Ukraine will produce 113 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds a year and export 70 million tonnes.
According to the UGA, export of grain and oilseeds in the 2020/21 season will be some 58.8 million tonnes.
The largest Polish air carrier LOT resumes international flights from July 1, including flights to Kyiv.
According to the company’s website, in particular, flights will be operated to Boryspil International Airport.
In addition, from July 1 LOT will resume flights to Prague (the Czech Republic), Dusseldorf, Berlin (both Germany), Vilnius (Lithuania), Budapest (Hungary), Vienna (Austria), Brussels (Belgium), Bucharest (Romania), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Tbilisi (Georgia), Oslo (Norway), Barcelona (Spain), Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar (all Croatia), Podgorica (Montenegro), Corfu, Chania (both Greece), and Varna (Bulgaria).
Dynamics of the consumer price index in 2002-2020, in %
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) is expanding the list of destinations for July and August 2020 due to the easing by some countries of the border crossing regime for Ukrainian tourists.According to the press service of the company, domestic flights will be operated in three directions – Kherson, Odesa and Lviv.
So, in the period from July 1 to July 30, UIA will serve domestic flights to Odesa, Lviv and Kherson, flying every Friday to the regions and returning to Kyiv every Sunday. However, in the first half of August, it is planned to change the schedule for the direction Kyiv-Odesa: flights will be operated on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (Odesa-Kyiv on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). From August 16 to August 31, a flight to Odesa on Thursdays may also be added.
International flights, as UIA notes, will be operated in the directions of the airline’s regular flight program: Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Dubai, Tbilisi, Batumi, Larnaca, Athens, London, Nice, Rome, Naples, Baku, Berlin, Milan, Munich, Prague, Yerevan, Madrid, Vienna, Barcelona, Chisinau, and there will also be periodic flights to Toronto.
The level of capital declared by many insurance companies is overestimated, and financial stability indicators are not true, according to the Financial Stability Report of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) published on Wednesday.
According to the report, the central bank is concerned about most of the requirements to reinsurers. At the same time, about a third of the premiums were transferred to insurers whose solvency is uncertain, which means that the probability of receiving reimbursement is small.
In addition, some insurance companies hold funds in bank accounts exclusively for reporting on quarterly dates. After that, the funds from the accounts are transformed into other assets. Of 150 financial institutions analyzed, similar behavior is characteristic of more than half of the companies. But in general, their deposits in banks make up less than 20% of the total deposits of insurers.
The NBU said that insurance companies need high-quality and liquid assets in order to make insurance payments on time. Such assets, in particular, are government bonds and funds in deposit accounts. At the same time, many insurers invest in illiquid assets which real market value is impossible to establish – capital of enterprises, shares and investment certificates. The income from such assets declared in their financial statements averages less than 5% per year, which is significantly lower than the current profitability of deposits or government bonds, and it is almost impossible to turn them into liquid assets. Some of the securities are seized or their circulation is stopped. Another significant component of the assets of a number of companies – accounts receivable – often in practice has no market value.
According to the regulator, the insurance market requires a fundamental change in the rules of the game, since its development is constrained by imperfect regulation, which in many aspects is not consistent with the Insurance Core Principles of the International Association of Insurance Market Supervisors (IAIS) and the European Solvency directive. Consumers should receive additional guarantees that their rights will be protected, and they will receive insurance indemnities on time and in full, the central bank said.
“The priority for the NBU will be to strengthen the financial stability of insurance companies, introduce the best corporate governance practices and internal supervision systems, respond in advance to financial problems and violations of the protection of the rights of consumers of financial services,” the NBU said.
The bus operator FlixBus (Germany) will resume operations in Ukraine on separate international routes from June 25.
According to the company’s press service, tickets are already on sale for trips from Kyiv via Zhytomyr, Rivne, Lviv, Uzhgorod to Krakow, Budapest, Vienna and more than a dozen German cities, and from July 3 green branded buses will travel from Odesa via Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky and Ternopil to Plzen through Prague.
“So far we have renewed part of our routes from Ukraine, but we plan to gradually restore them all. Closing the borders has become a challenge for the entire industry of international transportation, but even taking into account severe restrictions on the borders with the EU countries that exist now, we see a demand for trips to the countries of Europe. First of all, these are Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic,” the press service said citing director of FlixBus in Ukraine and Poland Michal Leman.
