The most popular presidential candidates are showman Volodymyr Zelensky, Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, according to a poll conducted by the Sociological Monitoring Center, the Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute of Social Research, Info Sapiens and the Rating Group Ukraine.
According to the results of the survey presented in the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency, 81% of those polled said they would vote in the presidential elections, with 45% saying they would definitely vote, and 36% saying they would most likely vote.
Some 21.9% supported the candidacy of Zelensky, Tymoshenko – 19.2% and Poroshenko – 14.8%.
The poll was conducted from January 19 through January 30, 2019. Some 10,000 persons aged 18 and older were questioned in all regions of Ukraine, except occupied Crimea and occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The margin of error of the survey does not exceed 1%.
The Finance Ministry, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Ukrgasbank have started assessing and structuring the financial took allowing IFC to enter the capital of this state-owned bank, the Finance Ministry reported.
“This is the most important stage in the implementation of the fundamentals of the strategic reform of the public banking sector… IFC’s entry into Ukrgasbank’s capital will be a powerful signal for international investors and will contribute to the further development of the banking system in general,” Finance Minister Oksana Markarova said.
The Finance Ministry said that the transition to this stage became possible as a result of the successful fulfillment of the terms of the tripartite memorandum of understanding signed in November 2017 to support the privatization (sale) of the bank by the ministry and Ukrgasbank.
According to the memorandum, IFC helped Ukrgasbank to strengthen corporate governance, ensure its operational independence, and further improve its stable banking model based on commercial viability.
Successful cooperation between the state-owned bank and IFC has already allowed for more than 145 projects in the field of clean energy using biofuels, hydropower, solar and wind energy with a total capacity of 866 MW, which is a quarter of all renewable energy facilities in Ukraine. Thanks to these projects, CO2 emission reduction has reached more than 1 million tonnes annually.
As reported, in November 2017, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance agreed on cooperation with IFC in the process of privatization of Ukrgasbank. The memorandum of cooperation also envisaged a possibility of entering the capital of the bank by IFC to support its sale. The investment will depend on several factors, including the outcome of the due diligence of the bank.
Ukrgasbank was established in 1993 and the state represented by the Ministry of Finance owns 94.9% of its shares. Since 2015, the bank has been included in the list of state-owned facilities of strategic importance for the economy and national security.
The presidential election campaign started in Ukraine on Monday, December 31, and will last for 90 days.
The World Bank has reviewed downwards its forecast for Ukraine’s GDP growth in 2019 from 3.5% to 2.9%, according to the Global Economic Prospects (GEP). Ukrainian businesses predict further economic growth and the creation of new jobs in 2019 for the second year in a row, according to a survey of company heads conducted by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The minimum wage in Ukraine in 2019 is UAH 4,173. Real wages in Ukraine in December 2018 increased by 9.7% compared to December 2017 and by 14.5% compared to November 2018, the State Statistics Service said.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-November 2018 increased by 66.6% compared with January-November 2017 and amounted to $8.866 billion, the State Statistics Service has reported.
The growth of consumer prices in Ukraine in 2018 slowed to 9.8% compared with 13.7% in 2017, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has reported.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) intends to revise the forecast for inflation in the current year upwards.
The revenues of the national budget of Ukraine in 2018 amounted to UAH 928.139 billion and exceeded the target by 1.1%, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova has said, commenting on the information on the website of the State Treasury Service that state budget revenues were 1.3.% or UAH 11.77 billion less than the planned figure.
The revenues of the national budget of Ukraine in 2018 amounted to UAH 928.14 billion, which is UAH 11.77 billion, or 1.3% less than the target, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine reported on its website. Tax payments to local budgets in 2018 grew by 21.6% compared with 2017, to UAH 230.5 billion, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine has reported.
The surplus of the balance of payment in November 2018 was $1.321 billion, according to a posting on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
Industrial production in Ukraine in 2018 increased by 1.1% compared with 2017, while in December 2018 from December 2017 the decline was 3.5%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
The volume of sold industrial products (goods, services) in January-November 2018 stood at UAH 2.262 trillion, which is 17.4% more than in January-November 2017, in particular the volume sold abroad was worth UAH 88.841 billion, the State Statistics Service has reported.
Industrial prices in Ukraine in December 2018 decreased by 0.4% after growth in November by 1.7%, in October by 0.3%, in September by 1.2%, in August by 1.3%, the State Statistics Service has said.
Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU country in January-November 2018 grew by 6.9% year-over-year, to $5.6 billion.
The transport companies of Ukraine in January-December 2018 reduced passenger traffic by 3.5% compared with 2017, to 4.5 billion people, the State Statistics Service has reported. The transport enterprises of Ukraine in January-December 2018 reduced carriage of goods by 2% from January-December 2017, to 624.1 million tonnes.
The volume of construction work performed in Ukraine in 2018 increased by 4.4% compared with 2017, while growth in 2017 compared with 2016 was 26.3%, according to reviewed statistics.
Retail trade turnover in Ukraine in 2018 in comparable prices increased by 6.1% compared with 2017, the State Statistics Service has reported.
