The volume of construction work performed in Ukraine in May 2019 increased by 15.7% compared with May 2018, while the indicator in April 2019 compared with April 2018 rose by 29.4%. According to the agency, the volume of construction work performed in May 2019 increased by 6.3% compared with April 2019 (according to seasonally adjusted data decreased by 4.1%), while in April 2019 it dropped by 4.1% compared with March 2019.
According to the report, in May 2019 compared with May 2018 the volume of construction work decreased only in residential construction and in engineering – by 13.4% and 25.6% respectively.
Nonresidential construction in May 2019 rose by 28.9%.
National bank of ukraine’s official rates as of 26/06/19
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Industrial production in Ukraine in May 2019 increased by 1.6% compared with May 2018, after a rise of 5.2% in April, 2.1% in March, and a fall of 1.8% and 3.3% in February and January respectively, the State Statistics Service has reported. The agency said that with the adjustment to the effect of calendar days, industrial production in May 2019 compared with May 2018 also increased by 0.6%.
The service said that compared with the previous month, industrial production in May fell by 0.85%, and taking into account the seasonal factor it dropped by 0.9%.
In general, in January-May 2019, the growth in industrial production compared to the same period of 2018 is 0.9%, according to the State Statistics Service.
The rise in processing industry in May 2019 from May 2018 was 1.1%, in extracting industry and quarrying some 2.3%. The figure in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and conditioned air reduced by 2.5%.
The BlaBlaBus bus low-cost carrier, founded by the world’s largest international online service of the search for automobile travel companions BlaBlaCar (France), plans to enter the Ukrainian market. “Our first BlaBlaBus bus route has already been launched in Germany. We plan to connect 60 cities across Germany and Benelux with our routes in the first year of operation. Then we will expand the BlaBlaBus coverage to the whole of Europe. In our non-European markets where we have already started connecting professional bus carriers to our platform, we will also redouble our efforts in this direction, with a focus on Russia, Ukraine and Latin America,” co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar Nicolas Brusson said in an interview for the Journal.Octobus magazine.
According to him, the BlaBlaBus service will help reduce the number of cars on the roads, as well as reduce the cost of travel.
BlaBlaBus launched its first bus route in Germany on June 11, 2019. In 2018, BlaBlaCar bought the French carrier Ouibus, on the basis of which BlaBlaBus was created. Before the merger, the French service had more than 300 bus routes around Europe.
BlaBlaCar (France) is the world’s largest international online service of the search for automobile travel companions, it was founded in 2006. The company operates in 22 countries, the total clientele of the project exceeds 70 million people.
BlaBlaCar entered the Ukrainian market in early 2014, having bought the Ukrainian startup Podorozhniki.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and founder of the Japanese Internet company Rakuten Hiroshi Mikitani have discussed plans to enhance the company’s presence in Ukraine, in particular the expansion of the office in Odesa and the opening of a new office in Kyiv. Zelensky and Mikitani met on June 25, the presidential website said.
In Ukraine, Rakuten is best known as the owner of the Viber service.
Hiroshi Mikitani says Ukraine is a priority market for Rakuten. He expressed his willingness to support the idea of increasing the number of investment projects from Japan.
He also approvingly responded to Zelensky’s initiative “The State in a Smartphone” and expressed a desire to cooperate closely under this project, since Viber is an integral part of the smartphone of most Ukrainians.
Following the meeting, Zelensky invited Mikitani to join the National Investment Council whose secretary is IT entrepreneur David Arakhamia.