The surplus of Ukraine’s consolidated balance of payment in April 2020 reached $716 million, while in April 2019 the deficit was $46 million, according to preliminary data posted by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on Friday.
According to the report, the surplus of the current account of the balance of payment last month was $1.4 billion, and in April 2019 the deficit was $92 million.
The volume of exports of goods in April 2020 decreased by 4% (in March 2020 by 3.5%), to $3.6 billion. The decline was due to a decrease in the export of wood and wood products by 19.6% (by 11.7%), ferrous and non-ferrous metals – by 18.1% (by 13.1%) and engineering products – by 8.3% (by 13.3%), as well as a drop in exports of industrial products and chemical products by 24.2% and 2.5% respectively, which a month earlier had increased by 2.3% and 16.7%.
At the same time, in April, export of food products continued to grow – by 6.6% (by 2.3%) and mineral products – by 12.1% (by 3.5%).
In January-April 2020, exports to Asian countries increased in money terms (by $796 million, or 16.9%), while exports to the EU and the Russian Federation decreased by $555 million (9.7%) and $111 million (13.6%) respectively. Thus, the share of exports to Asian countries of total exports increased to 37% (from 31.3% for the same period in 2019), and to the EU and Russia decreased to 34.6% (from 38%) and to 4.7% (from 5.4%).
In April 2020, import of goods decreased more significantly – by 28.4% (in March – by 6%), to $3.4 billion, including energy imports decreased by 33.4% (in March – by 11.5%), and non-energy – by 28.6% (in March – by 4.8%).
Last month, in particular, imports of engineering products decreased by 28.7% (in March – by 2.6%), including cars by 33.4% (in March, it increased by 21.7%). In addition, exports of ferrous and non-ferrous metals decreased by 36.8% (in March – by 8.6%), industrial products by 23% (by 7.2%) and chemical products – by 17.5% (in March it grew by 2.1%).
At the same time, food imports continued to grow – by 2.1% after rapid growth in March by 20.9%.
According to the results of January-April 2020, imports from Russia (by $924 million, or 37.5%) and from the EU countries (by $314 million, or 4.5%) decreased the most in money terms, while Russia’s share of total imports decreased to 9.2% (from 13.2% according to the results of the corresponding period of 2019), and the EU increased to 40.8% (from 38.2%). At the same time, imports from Asian countries remained almost unchanged – it grew only by $34 million (or 0.8%), and its share of total imports – to 26.3% from 23.3%.
According to the report, the surplus in trade in services in April 2020 tripled to $555 million compared to April 2019, thanks to the higher rate of decline in imports of services (by half) compared to their exports (by 17.0%) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A decrease in imports of services occurred along with a 72.2% decrease in expenses of people traveling abroad and short-term migrants, as well as a decrease in transport and other business services by 31.3% and 41.2%, respectively.
At the same time, a decrease in the export of services was facilitated by a decrease in transport services (37.5%) and expenses of people traveling in Ukraine (95.7%), while the export of computer services continued to increase (by 21.3%).
According to the central bank, the surplus in the balance of primary income in April 2020 decreased by 10.4%, to $420 million compared to April a year earlier due to the predominance of a decrease in receipts from payroll (by $158 million) over payments on income from investments (by $120 million).
Net borrowing from the outside world (total current account balance and capital account) last month amounted to $1.4 billion, which is 93.4% less than in April 2019 ($91 million).
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of June 1
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 01/06/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
As of May 28, Ukrainian farmers planted 14.9 million hectares of spring crops, which is 96% of the forecast (15.5 million hectares), Minister of Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture Taras Vysotsky wrote on his Facebook page last week.
According to him, over the past week, the area with crops in the regions expanded by 275,000 hectares.
Thus, the areas with the main crops as of May 28 were the following: sunflower – 5.99 million ha; corn – 5.33 million ha; barley – 1.52 million ha; soybeans – 1.34 million ha, peas – 282,710 ha, sugar beets – 209,010 ha; spring wheat – 184,530 ha; peas – 282,710 ha; oats – 186,350 ha, buckwheat – 55,230 ha.
As reported, the sown area of major crops in 2020 will increase by 600,000 hectares compared with 2019 and will amount to 15.5 million hectares. In the structure of crops of the spring group, it is predicted that the proportion of corn and sunflower will increase, and that of barley, soy and sugar beets will decrease.
The Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture predicted that farmers will harvest 65-68 million tonnes of grain crops in 2020, compared to 75 million tonnes in 2019.
Kyiv is one of the ten best cities in the world with the development of sharing services, the rating was held in 52 cities, the press service of Kyiv City State Administration has reported.
“Kyiv entered the top ten cities with the best level of development of sharing services. The assessment was carried out according to the level of access to such services as Uber and Airbnb, electronic scooters, applications for sharing professional cars, the ability to rent a car from private owners, as well as the ability to access all the gyms of Kyiv from one mobile application,” the report said.
It is noted that the best sharing services are developed in Tallinn, Vilnius, Riga, Warsaw, Kyiv, Sao Paulo, Tbilisi and other cities. In general, the rating was carried out in 52 cities of the world.
“Now in the capital in the field of sharing services, among other things, the bike sharing investment project from Next Bike with 45 rental points is being implemented and a project to rent electric scooters is being prepared for implementation,” Kyiv City State Administration added.
First Ukrainian Apples Producers aggregation platform (USPA FRUIT) jointly with USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine start a joint initiative entitled “the Fruits Expansion to the Countries of the Middle East and Africa,” under which Ukrainian fresh fruit producers will receive help to enter new markets. According to a press release of the USPA FRUIT platform, under the initiative trade and economic missions for companies-members of the platform to the Middle East and Africa will be organized. Ukrainian producers will also have access to market analytics, which in the future will help them conclude deals for the supply of fresh fruits (apples, cherries, blueberries), increase export sales and create new jobs.
“Establishing stable supplies will be preceded by a detailed study of the Middle East and Africa markets, which will help USPA FRUIT identify priority exports, develop and implement pricing and marketing policies for each country in the region, which in turn will create competitive entry and consolidation in these markets. Within the project, USPA FRUIT aggregation platform organizes trade and economic missions to Egypt, Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, what will help to establish program supplies of fresh fruits from Ukraine,” USPA FRUIT said.
Fresh fruits from the USPA FRUIT aggregation platform have been presented in the UAE market for three years already, but there are still many opportunities for development within the markets of the Middle East and Africa.
