The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at a meeting on Wednesday approved the supervisory board of national energy company Ukrenergo, consisting of four independent members and three representatives of the state. Former head of the EBRD representative office in Ukraine Sevki Acuner, ex-president and CEO of Energinet (Denmark) Peder Andreasen, General representative of the National Academy of Technologies of France, having experience of working in EDF, Elf Aquitaine, Total and the French Energy Council Olivier Appert, co-founder and CEO at DFC Economics (Italy), who earlier worked in TERNA Rete Elettrica Nazionale and Enel, Luigi De Francisci joined the board.
Deputy State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers Serhiy Kushnir, State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry Maksym Nemchynov and Advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Poplavsky will represent the state on the board.
“The reform of the management of state-owned enterprises is progressing. Today, another large and important enterprise for the country’s economy, the state-owned enterprise Ukrenergo, received a supervisory board, which includes experts with successful experience in international markets,” Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleksandr Saenko wrote on his Facebook page.
“All of them have proven successful experience in implementing commercial projects in the energy sector, experience in transformation processes, led by national power grid operators such as Électricité de France, Enel, TERNA Rete Elettrica Nazionale and Energinet. Among them are qualified financiers and power engineers with experience of operational and strategic management of energy companies that have worked in the industry for decades,” he said.
Textile-Kontakt Group, a leading textile fabric seller and producer in Ukraine, in 2019 plans to invest up to UAH 100 million in a new enterprise that will produce fabric in Chernihiv. Its opening is scheduled for December 2018. “To create new production facilities, Textile-Kontakt plans to invest up to UAH 30 million this year, and up to UAH 100 million by the end of 2019,” the company’s press service reported. In September, the group began repairing workshops with a total area of 3,500 square meters and installation of new equipment. The capacity of the plant will be 2-3 million meters of fabric per year.
The launch of the new production site will allow creating up to 80 jobs and with reaching the full production capacity by the end of 2019 the enterprise will employ up to 100 more people.
According to a press service, the main assortment will be fabrics made from 100% cotton: twill, bleached calico and printed cotton, as well as blended raincoat fabric “Greta”. The company also plans to produce a special fabric for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
The press service reminded that until 2014, the group of companies Textile-Kontakt included the company TK-Donbas, which produced up to 60% of cotton fabrics in Ukraine (2 million meters per month). After 2014, control over the enterprise was completely lost. In 2017, the company planned to create a joint venture with the company Temp-3000 and launch production on the basis of Bohuslavsky Textile (Kyiv region). But from January 2018, Textile-Kontakt left the joint venture, and it was decided to create its own enterprise.
Textile-Kontakt was founded in 1995 and today represents a holding company that combines various areas of assets: wholesale and retail trade, the import of fabrics, accessories and home textiles, as well as tailoring of special clothing (including military uniforms). The founder of the group is Ukrainian businessman and public figure Oleksandr Sokolovsky.
Ukraine’s GDP in 2018 is expected to grow by 3.1% amid 9.5% inflation (Dec over Dec) and the growth is expected to slightly slow in 2019 to 3.0% amid 7.4% inflation, according to an updated consensus forecast released by Ukraine’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
The growth of Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) in April-June 2018 was 3.8% compared to the same period in 2017, whereas according to the preliminary assessment of the State Statistics Service, published in mid-August, this indicator was 3.6%.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-July 2018 increased by 42.7% compared to January-July 2017, to $4.064 billion (it was $2.848 billion in January-July 2017), the State Statistics Service of Ukraine said.
Revenue of Ukraine’s national budget in August 2018 amounted to UAH 93.96 billion, which was UAH 2.79 billion, or 2.9% less than the planned figure, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine reported.
Income from profit tax to the general fund of the national budget in January-August 2018 exceeded the planned figure by 20.2% and amounted to UAH 72.5 billion, the State Fiscal Service has reported.
Money supply in Ukraine in August 2018 grew by 0.3%, to UAH 1.233 trillion, such preliminary data of monetary statistics are posted on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
The gross foreign debt of Ukraine as of the beginning of July 2018 was $113.751 billion, which is 1.47% or $1.7 billion less than at the beginning of the year, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
Ukraine’s gross external debt in the second quarter of 2018 declined by $1.4 billion, or 1.2%, to $113.8 billion, and stands at about 93.6% of GDP, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said, based on its preliminary estimates of GDP.
The international reserves of Ukraine in August 2018 decreased by 2.9% and amounted to the equivalent of $17.232 billion by September 1.
Industrial production in Ukraine in August 2018 decreased by 0.5% compared to August 2017, while in July the growth was 2.9% compared to July 2017, in June this figure was 2.2%, in May some 2.5%, in April some 3%, the State Statistics Service has said.
Retail trade turnover in Ukraine in January-August 2018 increased by 5.4% in comparable prices in comparison with January-August 2017, the State Statistics Service has said.
Consumer prices in Ukraine, after the decrease by 0.7% in July, in August remained unchanged, while since the beginning of the year their growth was 3.6%, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has reported.
Ukraine in January-September 2018 reduced transit of natural gas through its gas transportation system (GTS) by 7% compared to the same period in 2017, to 65.449 billion cubic meters, according to live data from PJSC Ukrtransgaz. According to calculations made by the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency, in particular transit of gas through Ukraine to Europe during this period amounted to 63.432 billion cubic meters (7.5% down), to Moldova to 2.017 billion cubic meters (11.1% up).
In September 2018, transit of gas decreased by 13.9% compared to the same month in 2017, to 7.232 billion cubic meters. In particular transit of gas through Ukraine to Europe amounted to 7.07 billion cubic meters (14.1% down), to Moldova to 162.1 million cubic meters (0..04% down).
As reported, Ukraine in 2017 increased transit of natural gas through its GTS by 13.7% (11.257 billion cubic meters) compared to 2016, to 93.457 billion cubic meters, in particular transit to Europe amounted to 90.749 billion cubic meters, to Moldova some 2.708 billion cubic meters.
Ukrtransgaz, 100% owned by Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates a system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities in the country.
Average retail prices for petrol and diesel fuel in Ukraine in the period from September 24 to October 2, 2018 grew by 2.3-3%, while prices of LPG climbed by 1.1%, according to data from the A-95 Consulting Group (Kyiv). As reported, average retail prices for petrol in Ukraine for 2017 increased by 19.2-20.1% (by UAH 4.61-4.76 per liter), for diesel fuel by 22.6% (by UAH 4.84 per liter). At the same time, average prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), despite a sharp increase in August due to deficit, showed an increase of only 2.9% for the year (by UAH 0.36 per liter).
Changes in average retail fuel prices UAH per liter in Ukraine:
The total volume of the cigarette market in Ukraine in January-June 2018 narrowed by 11-12% year-over-year, JTI Ukraine General Manager Paul Holloway has said. “The Ukrainian market has decreased by 11-12% compared to 2017. If in 2016, price wars were observed in Ukraine, then in 2017 the industry left them, and now the situation in this sense is more or less stable. But there is a question of purchasing power of a Ukrainian consumer,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Holloway said that now the Ukrainian consumer spends on average 21% of his daily income on cigarettes. “For comparison: this is more than in the U.K., where the consumer spends on them 15% of his income,” the general manager said.
According to JTI Ukraine estimates, the share of the premium segment in Ukraine is 13%, and more than 70% of the Ukrainian cigarette market is the low-price segment, which reflects the purchasing power of consumers.
“At the same time, Winston is the fastest-growing brand on the market. It does not belong to the low-price segment. Despite the fact that the low-price segment dominates on the market, there is still room for growth in the high-price segment. We do not expect the ratio of the low-price segment to other segments to change over the next two to three years,” Holloway said. According to him, now the company is actively discussing plans to bring brands to the Ukrainian market in the segment of electronic cigarettes and tobacco heating systems.
