The commodity group “equipment and electronics” in 2018 was the leader in smuggling deliveries to Ukraine and accounted for 21.4% of the total volume of smuggled deliveries to the country. This was reported by the economist of the independent analytical group of macroeconomists Ukraine Economic Outlook, Hryhoriy Kukuruza, during the round table in Kyiv. According to him, the smuggling of this group of goods in 2018 amounted to $1.3 billion, which is 31% of the total imports of these goods ($4.1 billion).
At the same time, according to the expert, the market of technical consumer goods in the second quarter of 2019 showed an increase of 15% and amounted to UAH 21 billion.
Representatives of household appliance retailers present at the round table noted that the government, first of all, needs to fight not against smuggling but with its sale within the country. In particular, in their opinion, it is necessary to pass a bill that will prohibit the sale of smuggled goods in Ukraine.
“The reason for smuggling is uncontrolled domestic trade within the country. The goods are sold – no one knows about it … Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions so that no one needs smuggling,” Hennadiy Verbylenko, the chairman of the supervisory board of Comfy, said.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said that the number of counterfeit hryvnia banknotes and their sum in H1 2019 fell by 26% and 20% respectively year-over-year.
As the regulator said on the website, most (99%) of banknotes withdrawn from circulation traditionally had four denominations: UAH 500 (50% counterfeit), UAH 100 (24%), UAH 200 (14%) and UAH 50 (11%), then as counterfeit banknotes with face values from UAH 1 to UAH 20 amounted to only 1%.
“Most often, the detected counterfeit banknotes came true through the cash desks of fast food, retail outlets and gas stations,” the regulator said.
The National Bank said that 93% of the seized counterfeit banknotes were made using inkjet printers, 6% by laser printers and using color copiers, 1% of counterfeit banknotes was made by printing.
The NBU said that in August, there was an increase in the withdrawal from circulation of counterfeit banknotes with a face value of UAH 500 printed in 2006, counterfeited using inkjet printing with imitation of ultraviolet protection. “There was the seizure of about 60 banknotes that were sold at the box office gas stations in different regions of the country (Kyiv city and region, Zakarpattia, Volyn, and Zhytomyr regions),” the National Bank said.
The Boryspil international airport (Kyiv) in January-August 2019 saw a 21.7% rise in passenger flow year-over-year, to 9.974 million people, the airport’s press service has told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the airport, 9.240 million passengers use international flights and 734,000 passengers used domestic flights.
In January-August 2019, 72,978 people were serviced for arrivals and departures that is 14.9% more over the same period in 2018, of which 64,049 travelled on international flights (16.8% rise) and 8,929 on domestic ones (2.9% rise).
In August 2019, the passenger flow of the airport amounted to 1.648 million people, which is 24.2% more than a year ago. The number of passengers serviced on international flights totaled 1.542 million people (25.8% rise) and 105,000 on domestic flights (5.1% rise).
Boryspil International Airport is the main airport of Ukraine, occupying a total area of about 1,000 ha. The airport has two runways: one with a length of 4,000 meters and a width of 60 meters, and the second with a length of 3,500 meters and a width of 63 meters. Four passenger terminals, postal and cargo handling complexes are located on the territory of the airport.
Cattle livestock in Ukraine (excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, Sevastopol, parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) as of September 1, 2019 amounted to 3.67 million animals, which is 4.6% down on the same date in 2018, the State Statistics Service has reported. The number of cows by this date also decreased 4.6%, to 1.91 million head.
According to the State Statistics Service, the number of pigs as of September 1, 2019, fell by 2.6%, to 6.29 million animals, the number of sheep and goats declined by 3.1%, to 1.52 million animals compared to the same period of 2018.
The number of poultry in the country compared with September 1, 2018, increased 3.8%, to 254.79 million birds.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reviewed upwards its forecast for export of barley from Ukraine in the 2019/20 agricultural year (July-June) by 0.4 million tonnes compared with the August forecast, to 4.8 million tonnes, and barley harvest forecast – by 0.55 million tonnes, to 9.2 million tonnes.
According to the September report, published on the USDA website, the forecast for the production of Ukrainian wheat was revised downwards by 0.5 million tonnes, to 28.7 million tonnes, the forecast of export of wheat remained at 19.5 million.
USDA in September reviewed downwards the forecast for production of corn in Ukraine by 0.5 million tonnes, to 36 million tonnes, and the export forecast remained unchanged, being 30 million tonnes.
In general, the forecast for grain harvest in 2019/20 agri-year in Ukraine is reviewed downwards to 74.9 million tonnes (0.45 million tonnes less than in the August forecast), the export forecast was increased to 54.44 million tonnes (0.4 million tonnes more).
Metallurgical companies of Ukraine in January-August 2019 increased natural gas consumption by 2% year-over-year, to 1.26 billion cubic meters.
The Ukrmetallurgprom association said last week that in August, gas consumption was 150 million cubic meters, which is 32% less than in July (220 million cubic meters).
Electricity consumption by metal enterprises in January-August of this year amounted to about 7.73 billion kWh (98% compared to January-August last year). At the same time, about 980 million kWh was consumed in August, which is 3% more than in July 2019.
