External financing of the state budget as of June 14, 2023, USD bln
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Kyivstar has urged to trust only official information as fraudsters have become more active in Internet messengers, the company’s press service reports. “Currently, fraudsters have become more active in various messengers, so we ask you to trust only official information,” the company said in a Facebook post.
It is reported that news about compensation and the timing of the network upgrade will come exclusively from the company’s official pages.
“Kyivstar urged users not to share phone numbers and personal data with suspicious people. “They may turn out to be fraudsters,” the press service said.
Earlier it was reported that the largest Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar partially restored the operation of fixed-line services after a large-scale failure at 20:00 on Tuesday, and the company promised to complete the restoration of other services during the day on December 13.
Sales of apartments in Ukrainian new buildings in the third quarter of 2023 recovered by 24% from the pre-war level, while demand for housing is already at 70-80%, according to a study by the LUN real estate portal.
“We compared the sales of developers with the figures for 2021. At the end of 2022, sales recovered to 11%. In 2023, sales grew rapidly and as of the third quarter recovered by almost a quarter to 24%. We see the market recovering in all segments in 2023. Now people are buying ready-made housing or with a commissioning period of up to 1 year. But it is already obvious that deferred demand is forming. In the absence of escalation, we can expect the market to stabilize,” said Olga Okhrimenko, LUN Sales Director, at the RED Online Meeting “Housing Market: Results 2023 and Forecasts 2024”.
According to the study, sales in Kyiv and Kyiv region are recovering at a slower pace and are currently at 17% of the pre-war level. At the same time, sales in Lviv and the region reached 42%.
To date, sales have been opened in 83% of residential complexes in Ukraine, and construction has resumed at 77% of construction sites, LUN notes. In December 2023, 916 residential complexes are under construction, of which 4% have already been sold out, 3% have not yet started sales, and 5% have stopped sales.
The largest number of residential complexes with open sales is in the Kyiv region: 230 in Kyiv and 182 in Kyiv region. Other leaders are Lviv region (238 objects for sale), Odesa (135), Ivano-Frankivsk (91), Khmelnytsky (88) and Ternopil (80).
According to LUN, after the start of the full-scale invasion, sales started in 275 residential complexes, most of them in Lviv region (79), Kyiv region (43), Ternopil region (29), Ivano-Frankivsk region (24) and Zakarpattia region (23). During this period, 294 residential complexes completed sales.
Okhrimenko noted that over the past six months, the issuance of mortgage loans under the eHouse program has been showing active dynamics, which has a positive impact on the demand for housing.
“As for the interest in buying an apartment, today it has recovered to the level of 70-80% after falling to 30% in February 2022. People are now interested in buying an apartment again, both in the primary and secondary real estate markets,” the expert said.
At the same time, the slow pace of housing commissioning may provoke a shortage of new apartments for participants in the 7% government program, under which the chosen house must be no older than three years. Thus, according to LUN, in January-September 2023, 15% less housing was commissioned in the capital than last year, 35% less in Kyiv region, and 38% less in Lviv.
Average prices for new buildings increased in almost all regions over the year, according to the study. Prices remained at the same level in Kyiv (UAH 47.3 thousand per square meter), Lviv region (UAH 35.8 thousand per square meter) and Dnipropetrovs’k region (UAH 39.2 thousand per square meter). At the same time, prices decreased by 6% (to UAH 33 thousand per square meter) in Odesa region, by 8% (to UAH 31.1 thousand per square meter) in Vinnytsia region and by 21% (to UAH 26.9 thousand per square meter) in Mykolaiv region.
The largest increase in average housing prices was recorded in Kharkiv region – by 35% (to UAH 28.3 thousand per square meter), Kirovohrad region – by 26% (to UAH 31.5 thousand per square meter), Khmelnytsky region – by 22% (to UAH 24.3 thousand per square meter).
According to LUN, Lviv holds the lead in terms of the high cost of new buildings with 48.5 thousand UAH/sq. m. This is followed by Kyiv at 48 thousand UAH/sq m, Uzhhorod at 41.5 thousand UAH/sq m, Dnipro at 40 thousand UAH/sq m and Odesa at 36.2 thousand UAH/sq m.
In the secondary market, average housing prices increase depending on the distance from the area of active hostilities, Okhrimenko noted.
“The farther the region is from the fighting, the higher the prices are. The exception is the capital. Many Kyiv residents are not returning yet and have not decided to buy housing. That is why Kyiv is not raising prices yet, and has even reduced them a bit,” she explained.
The largest increase in prices in the secondary market over the past six months was shown by Lviv – a “plus” of $6.4 thousand, up to $58.5 thousand for a one-bedroom apartment. Prices also increased significantly in Ivano-Frankivsk (+$4.7 thousand, up to $31.7 thousand), Chernihiv (+$4 thousand, up to $31 thousand) and Cherkasy (+$3.4 thousand, up to $38.4 thousand).
Average prices for two-bedroom apartments in the secondary market increased the most in Vinnytsia (+$8.9 thousand, to $59.9 thousand), as well as in Chernivtsi (+7 thousand, to $62 thousand), Lviv (+$7 thousand, to $87 thousand) and Cherkasy (+$7 thousand, to $57 thousand).
Three-bedroom housing on the secondary market has risen in price the most in Vinnytsia (+$8.8 thousand, to $75.8 thousand), Lviv (+$7.7 thousand, to $108.7 thousand), Ivano-Frankivsk (+$7 thousand, to $60 thousand). At the same time, the average price of three-bedroom apartments in the secondary market in Kyiv fell by $8 thousand to $135 thousand.
“Ukrburgaz (a division of Ukrgasvydobuvannya) has set records in daily, monthly and annual penetration this year, said Oleh Tolmachov, UGV CEO.
“Next year, UGV plans to maintain the trend of increasing gas production and increase drilling penetration. Already this year, we see that our major projects, such as large-scale 3D seismic, are yielding results – a powerful well in western Ukraine. And next year, we expect even more data and will plan new drilling wells,” the company’s press service quoted him as saying on Facebook.
An important component of the company’s success in overcoming the production decline trend is the revision of the drilling site preparation cycle, which has reduced the time spent working with wells.
UGV is also working to shorten the well construction cycle, reduce capital expenditures and improve safety.
As reported, in February this year, UGV CEO Oleh Tolmachov said that the company plans to increase drilling by 1.5 times compared to last year – up to 300 thousand meters in 2023.
In 2023, Ukrgasvydobuvannya is tasked with increasing natural gas production by 1 bcm to 13.5 bcm. In 2022, the company produced 12.5 bcm of natural gas (commercial), which is 3% less than in 2021.
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine owns 100% of Ukrgasvydobuvannya shares.
Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group is considering increasing the production of mine trawls for tanks to clear territories as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces need 100 trawls per month,” said Metinvest Group Chief Operating Officer Alexander Mironenko in an interview with the corporate website.
According to him, the group’s specialists have been in close contact with the military since the beginning of the war and are constantly trying to respond to their needs. “When preparations for the counteroffensive began, we realized the extent of the enemy’s mining of our territory. These are many kilometers of fields mined mainly with TM-62 anti-tank mines. To cross them, other means are needed directly on the equipment.
One of these models, the most common in the Soviet Union, which is most suitable for Soviet-style T-64 and T-72 tanks used by the Ukrainian army, is an analog of the KMT-7 mine trawl. Its production was discontinued, and for some time this trawl was not produced.
“When the offensive began, the military asked us to look at the trophy samples taken from the downed Russian tanks… We made drawings and developed test samples of these trawls. Then we started testing them together with the military to make sure that the design was reliable and would withstand the number of explosions required by the regulations,” explains the top manager.
According to him, the trawls are now being used in many areas. We have delivered 8 units to the military, two more are waiting to be picked up by the military, and five are in the production process.
The trawls are used mainly in Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk. Metinvest maintains the trawls: if they are damaged, we take them away, repair them and install new rollers.
“Together with several teams, we are also considering the possibility of repairing old Soviet models, as they also fail and get damaged. There is a shortage of mine-resistant rollers that are blown up. We have set up mass production, because this is, so to speak, a consumable. Together with the trawl, we are transferring several more sets of these rollers so that they can be repaired very quickly in the field and continue to be used,” the top manager said.
According to him, without expanding production, five trawls are manufactured per month. There are opportunities to increase capacity, but there are not enough people. There are not enough specialists who can help increase production volumes, for example, to 10, 15, 20 mine trawls.
“We are now working with the Ministry of Defense to create favorable conditions and be able to recruit more staff and increase production. In general, the need mentioned by the military is more than 100 trawls per month. This is a need that needs to be met,” emphasized Mr. Myronenko.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The group’s enterprises are located mainly in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Financing state budget deficit, bln UAH
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
