Grain and leguminous crop stocks in Ukraine as of December 1, 2018 grew by 25.8% year-over-year, reaching 34.068 million tonnes, according to the UkrAgroConsult analytical agency with the reference to the State Statistics Service.
According to a report on the website of the agency, the indicators grew thanks to a rise of 59.3% in corn stocks, as the corn harvest hit a record, being 22.655 million tonnes. Stocks of other crops showed a decline. The largest decline was recorded for rye – 37%, to 124,700 tonnes.
As reported, referring to the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine, grain harvest in Ukraine in 2018 was around 70.1 million tonnes compared with 62 million tonnes last year.
Ukraine exported 39.9 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/2018 agricultural year. Grain exports in the 2018/2019 agri-year are projected to be 47.2 million tonnes.
Ukrainians registered 11,000 cars with foreign license plates, which were registered in the temporary importation or transit regimes, in one month, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine reported on its website on Thursday.
“From November 25 through December 26, 2018, citizens cleared 11,000 vehicles with foreign license plates, which have been imported to the customs territory of Ukraine since January 1, 2015 until the new rules of importation of these vehicles took effect,” the authority said.
Almost 9,600 out of cleared vehicles stayed in the country in violation of the Ukrainian legislation, the State Fiscal Service said.
On December 26, almost 1,400 vehicles were cleared.
As reported, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed bills cutting the excise duty on vehicles and toughening supervision over the movement and use of vehicles registered in other states. The preferential excise duty (with the 0.5 factor) was set for owners of cars with foreign licenses plates for clearing their vehicles within 90 calendar days.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a bill reducing the preferential imports duty on yarn (other than sewing thread) of synthetic staple fibers used for production of sewing thread from 4% to nil.
The bill amending the Customs Tariff of Ukraine was approved at a government meeting on Thursday.
According to the bill, the law will take effect in 45 days from the moment of its publication.
Nil rates are set for multiple (folded) or cabled yarn (Ukrainian Commodity Code 5509 22 00 00, as well as mixed mainly or solely with cotton yarn (5509 53 00 00). At present the preferential rate is 4% and the full rate is 15%.
According to the explanatory note to the document, the bill was designed pursuant to an order from the Cabinet of Ministers on the results of a meeting between the Prime Minister and the heads of light industry enterprises in Bohuslav in January 2018.
Today the work of light industry enterprises is more than 90% dependent on imports of raw materials, including cotton fiber, chemical fibers and threads, wool, yarn, fabrics, dyes that are not produced in Ukraine or are limited.
Over the past three years, imports of sewing threads only from synthetic staple fibers made of yarn mentioned in the draft and widely used by the population and more than 1,500 domestic enterprises producing clothing reached more than 1,100 tonnes worth $8.1. million, according to the document.
At the same time, more than 80% of volumes are imported from China (60%) and Turkey (20%) with a zero rate of duty.
At the same time, at the end of 2017, a new domestic facility producing sewing threads under the Barva trademark (the group of companies Textile-Contact) was created in Ukraine, and the raw materials for their production are subject to a 4% import duty.
The main suppliers of this yarn are China, India, and Indonesia.
Profit of Ukrainian banks in January-November 2018 totaled UAH 20 billion, and this is an 11-fold rise year-over-year, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Kateryna Rozhkova has said.
“The sector this year will make profit, which can be a record for more than 10 years. And most importantly it is real profit!” she wrote on her Facebook page on Thursday.
According to her, the year is not over yet, so various adjustments are possible, including the expenses on creating reserves, but the growth of interest income by almost 20% and commission income by 25% indicates that the banking sector is gradually but surely recovering.
Rozhkova predicted that in 2019, the sector income will remain high, although high interest rates will put pressure on income of banks.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, municipal enterprise Kyivteploenergo and international partners – the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – have signed a memorandum on the development of the heat and energy complex, under which Kyiv city will receive $100 million.
The press service of the Kyiv City Administration reported on Thursday that the document envisages international cooperation in modernization and development of the Kyiv’s heat and energy complex.
According to the report, under the memorandum, it is planned to build up an interim financial package of $100 million, which will finance the priority work on modernization.
“Kyiv lays the foundation for international cooperation in the modernization and development of the heat and power complex of the city. We are designing a plan to turn Kyivteploenergo into a European-level company that will provide high-quality services,” Klitschko said.
Klitschko said that the city is ready to overcome possible risks and barriers, given the imperfection of the current legislation and the difficult situation in the sphere of the country’s power system.
Foreign Service Officer at the USAID Farhad Ghaussy said that the United States actively supports the creation of an adequate level of Kyiv’s energy security.
He said that the USAID is actively cooperating with Kyiv city. It will be very difficult for the city to carry out modernization of the heat and power complex, but thanks to the assembled team it would be possible to transform it, he added.
The Cabinet of Minister of Ukraine has approved the national special-purpose social program for fighting tuberculosis for the period from 2018 to 2021.
A respective resolution was passed by the government at its meeting on December 27.
The program is based on the new global strategy of the World Health Organization (WHO) entitled “End TB Strategy” and benchmarks for a comprehensive action plan to fight tuberculosis in the WHO European Region for 2016-2020.
The implementation of the program will help reduce the number of TB cases and mortality cases resulting from tuberculosis and co-infections (tuberculosis / HIV infection / AIDS).
