KYIV. Dec 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Winter grain crops sprouted on 6.7 million ha out of 7.1 million ha of fields (95% of the planted area), Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry said in a Friday press release.
Around 83% of winter crops or 5.6 million ha are in good and fair condition, crops on 1.1 million ha (17%) are in poor condition. 5% of crops on 371,400 ha did not sprout.
Winter rapeseeds sprouted on 829,800 ha (92% of the planted area), including crops in good and fair condition on 679,600 ha (82%) and in poor condition on 148,700 ha (18%).
KYIV. Dec 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine in January through October 2016 exported agricultural products for $11.84 billion, and this was 40.7% of total national exports.
Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry said in a press release that over the period imports of agricultural products to Ukraine totaled $3.1 billion.
The surplus of trade with agricultural goods totaled $8.73 billion.
Grain crops had the largest share of Ukrainian exports ($4.8 billion), fats, vegetable oil amounted for $3.1 billion and finished food for $1.8 billion.
Crops prevailed in imports ($1 billion) and finished food ($1.4 billion).
KYIV. Dec 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has taken part in forming a new team of top managers of PrivatBank (Dnipro), Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.
“A new professional group of specialists has been hired to manage the bank. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development took part in the process,” the president said on Monday in his video address commenting on the transfer of PrivatBank to state ownership.
Poroshenko said that the task of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and Finance Ministry at present is provision for the gradual transfer of PrivatBank to state ownership.
KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Lucky Labs international IT company, headquartered in Ukraine, is mulling opportunities for strategic acquisitions in Europe and, in general, in the world, according to a press release from Lucky Labs.
According to the report, the company primarily focuses on acquisitions worth $20-30 million in Britain, Germany, or Latvia.
“From the beginning we focused on absorption of manufacturers of innovative applications around the world. Once we managed to collect a strong portfolio of gaming and marketing applications, we want to continue to grow in international markets and, first of all, in Britain, Germany and Latvia, where we see particularly ambitious startups with fantastic ideas,” reads a press release citing Lucky Labs co-founder Rustam Gilfanov.
“We will be glad to appeals from new startups that develop games. We are ready to assist them in realizing their ideas,” another co-founder of Lucky Labs Serhiy Tokarev said.
Lucky Labs is an international group of IT companies. It has been engaged in software development for more than 10 years. Its central office is located in Kyiv. It employs more than 500 people.
KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The volume of the P2P lending market since the launch of this service in Ukraine has reached UAH 5 billion, Head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeriya Gontareva has said.
“The P2P platform at present has increased by almost UAH 5 billion,” she said at the Vector 17 forum in Kyiv.
At the same time, the NBU head once again warned the P2P platform has no state guarantee of money refunds.
“People need to take a contract, read, who owes them money, and understand there is no bank in the agreement,” Gontareva said.
P2P (Peer-to-Peer) lending is a way of borrowing between persons not related to each other without the involvement of a financial intermediary (a bank, a credit union, etc.). Usually loans are provided through the online platforms of intermediaries that charge a fee for granting loans and credit verification instruments.
PrivatBank (Dnipro) launched the P2P lending service in March 2016.
KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The National Bank for the first time has allowed the positive foreign trade balance of Ukraine in the segment of natural gas imports and services for its transit.
“The next year, according to our estimates, could be the first year when revenues from gas transit could exceed expenditure for gas imports,” Deputy Head of the NBU Dmytro Solohub said at a press conference.
As reported, Ukraine in January-November 2016 increased transit of natural gas to Europe and Moldova by 22.3% compared to the same period in 2015, to 73.78 billion cubic meters, while reducing imports of natural gas by 41.2%, to 9.42 billion cubic meters.
According to a source in the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, Ukraine could in 2017 reduce gas imports from 12 billion cubic meters to 10 billion cubic meters.
