The surplus of Ukraine’s foreign trade in services in the first half of 2018 increased by 6% compared to the same period in 2017, to $2.826 billion (in the first half of 2017 some $2.658 billion), the State Statistics Service has said. According to its data, exports of services in January-June of 2018 increased by 5.7%, to $5.378 billion, imports by 4.9%, to $2.552 billion.
The ratio of coverage of imports by exports was 2.11 (for the six months of 2017 some 2.09).
Foreign trade operations were carried out with partners from 216 countries
First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Maksym Nefyodov and representatives of the leadership of Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) on August 14 met in Kyiv to discuss the possible participation of the Kuwaiti side in the privatization of Ukrainian state-owned enterprises, the ministry has said. “The KIA leadership noted the Kuwaiti side is interested in investing own funds in Ukrainian projects and the assets of investment funds in the initial placement of shares of Ukrainian companies on the world exchanges, real estate, financial market, services,” it said.
In particular, the first investment director of KIA and the deputy head of the mission, who attended the meeting, drew attention of the ministry representatives to the readiness to invest through the purchase of profitable enterprises, as well as trade and office centers, the report said.
The business confidence indicator in the construction market of Ukraine in the third quarter of 2018 improved by 2.8 percentage points (p.p.) compared to the second quarter, but remained negative at minus 18.7%. According to the survey of construction companies by the State Statistics Service, the assessment of a shortage of the current volume of orders reduced by 5 percentage points, to minus 40%, which corresponds to the situation in the first quarter of 2018.
According to the results of the survey, 42% of companies rated their current order volume as insufficient, 55% as normal for the season and only 2% as exceeding the norm.
Some 39% of respondents expect an increase in prices for their services in the third quarter of this year, which is 6 p.p. less than in the second quarter, while 2% of the companies surveyed predict a decrease in the cost of construction work, and 58% do not expect any changes in the price policy.
According to the service, companies participating in the survey are provided with orders for an average of five months, which corresponds to the indicators of the first and second quarters of this year.
The service said in the third quarter unfavorable weather conditions will not affect the work of construction companies, but 45% of respondents will continue to experience financial constraints. In addition, 27% of companies will be constrained by an insufficient demand, 19% by a shortage of labor.
Some 13% of the companies surveyed expect a reduction in the number of their employees in July-September 2018, while 22% predict an increase in the number of employees.
Madgicx, an Ad-Tech platform, wants to hire 20 IT specialists over the next year in Ukraine.
As digital advertising, Madgicx focuses on condensing successful Facebook advertising techniques into an automated, artificial intelligence platform.
“We’ve heard good things about Ukraine,” Idan Beker, company CTO, says in Kyiv. “Mainly that the workforce here has exceptional analytical skills and that they are devoted workers. The fact that the wages here are much cheaper than in Israel made our decision to hire our R&D team here.”
The devaluation of the Turkish lira in the near future will not lead to sharp price fluctuations in export and import transactions between Ukraine and Turkey, but there are fears of a decrease in the revenues of Ukrainian exporters that supply goods to the Turkish market, the Ukrsadprom association has reported. “The main export goods for each country are largely tied to a stable foreign currency and depend more on the situation on the global market rather than on changes in the domestic market. Therefore, in the short term, at least until the end of this year, it’s not worth expecting sharp price fluctuations in export and import operations with Turkey,” the association’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, according to Ukrsadprom experts, there are some concerns about the possible transition of Turkey in payments on foreign economic transactions with its main partners, including Ukraine, from the U.S. dollar to the national currency.
“We are currently considering the possibility of Turkey’s transition to settlements in foreign economic transactions with its main partners … This could cause inconvenience both in the settlement mechanism itself, and in setting prices and the appropriate exchange rate, because, according to most expectations, the Turkish lira will continue depreciating. As a consequence, there is a possibility of lower revenues for Ukrainian exporters,” Ukrsadprom indicates. However, in addition, there are grounds for a certain reduction in import prices for Ukraine when making purchases in Turkey, the association noted.
Ukrsadprom said Turkey is one of the largest importers of domestic agro-food products. For the first six months of this year, Ukraine exported agricultural products to Turkey for $458 million.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
