Raiffeisen Bank has launched financial leasing for business clients in Ukraine and has signed its first agreement under this new initiative with one of Ukraine’s leading agricultural producers, the bank’s press office reported.
Under the first agreement, the agricultural producer will upgrade its fleet of machinery. Going forward, the bank’s clients will be able to use financial leasing to purchase agricultural machinery and equipment, passenger and cargo vehicles, commercial vehicles, and other fixed assets.
“Businesses today need solutions that allow them to continue investing, modernize production, and plan for growth even amid a full-scale war. The launch of financial leasing expands these opportunities for our clients,” said Natalia Gurina, Chair of the Management Board of Raiffeisen Bank.
The bank plans to develop this service for Ukrainian and international companies operating and investing in Ukraine.
The launch of this new instrument draws on the experience of the international Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) group, where financial leasing is already in use in other European markets. Harald Kröger, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Raiffeisen Bank and Head of Structured Finance and Investment Banking at the RBI group, assesses the potential for its development in Ukraine as significant.
As previously reported, in late 2024, the then-Chairman of the Management Board of Raiffeisen Bank, Oleksandr Pysaruk, announced in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency the financial institution’s intention to resume plans to develop its leasing business in Ukraine. According to him, even before the full-scale war, the bank had already reached an agreement with its shareholder to ramp up the leasing company’s operations and was preparing a corresponding business plan.
At the time, Pysaruk expressed hope that the bank would be able to resume implementing these plans as early as 2025.
Raiffeisen Bank is the largest Ukrainian bank with foreign capital. Since October 2005, the bank has been part of the Austrian banking group RBI. Currently, the Raiffeisen Group owns 68.21% of the bank’s shares, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development holds 30%.
According to the National Bank, as of August 1, 2026, with total assets of 282.37 billion UAH, it ranked fourth among Ukraine’s 59 banks.
Import changes in % to previous period in 2024-2025
The expansion of its product portfolio allowed IDS Ukraine to offset the loss of profitability following the termination of its contract with Borjomi, which had previously accounted for about a quarter of the group’s profit, said IDS Ukraine CEO Marko Tkachuk.
One of the key factors was the aseptic production line installed even before the full-scale invasion, which allowed the company to expand its production of flavored water and enter new beverage categories.
IDS Ukraine is currently developing “Volya” energy drinks, the “Lemonade” line, flavored waters, and Morshynska Tea.
The company’s sales of non-carbonated flavored water grew by 68%, and its market share approached half of the corresponding segment of the Ukrainian market.
Morshynska Tea, launched in the spring of 2026, has proven particularly successful. Initially, the company viewed it as a test product; however, in some retail chains, it already accounts for over 10% of the iced tea segment. IDS Ukraine intends to expand this line of business. The company officially announced its entry into the
RTD teas on April 1, 2026.
Another new product in 2026 was packaged edible ice made from “Morshynska” water. Sales were temporarily suspended after warehouses with refrigeration equipment were destroyed and logistics became complicated. The company expects to bring the product back to the market in the summer of 2027. The edible ice product was launched in late June 2026.
Global demand for coal will rise this year and reach a new all-time high amid a surge in natural gas prices and a summer heat wave that has increased electricity consumption from air conditioners, according to forecasts by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
According to the agency’s estimates, global coal demand will rise by 1.2% in 2026 to 8.94 billion metric tons.
“Coal is virtually not shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, as the Middle East is neither a major producer nor a significant consumer of coal, but the closure of the strait still affected the coal market due to rising natural gas prices,” the IEA said in a statement. “This has stimulated an increase in electricity generation at coal-fired power plants in countries where there is a choice between gas and coal.”
If shipping through the Strait of Hormuz resumes and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies return to the levels seen before the start of hostilities in the Middle East, global demand for coal will decline next year. Otherwise, 2027 will once again set a record for coal consumption, IEA analysts noted.
In August 2026, Ukraine significantly reduced purchases of motor gasoline from the southern direction: imports from Romania decreased by approximately one third, while those from Greece fell by 40%, according to calculations by the Experts Club analytical center and data from the A-95 Consulting Group.
Supplies of Romanian gasoline amounted to 23.4 thousand tonnes compared with 34 thousand tonnes in July.
Imports from Greece decreased to 15 thousand tonnes from 24.9 thousand tonnes a month earlier.
Thus, total supplies from the two countries decreased over the month from approximately 58.9 thousand to 38.4 thousand tonnes.
“The main reason for the significant drop in imports from the south was the price factor. In August, when the market was no longer threatened by a shortage, companies reduced purchases of more expensive fuel from Romania and Greece,” the A-95 Consulting Group reported.
A similar trend was also observed in the diesel fuel market.
At the same time, the bulk of Ukrainian gasoline imports continued to arrive from the northwestern direction. In August, Lithuania supplied 51.8 thousand tonnes of gasoline, while Poland supplied 40.1 thousand tonnes.
These two countries accounted for about 60% of total imports.
Overall, gasoline supplies from abroad in August amounted to 152 thousand tonnes, which is 7% less than a year earlier. Since the beginning of 2026, Ukraine has imported 1.12 million tonnes of gasoline — 16% more than in January-August 2025.
The decline in purchases from the southern direction shows that after supply stabilized, Ukrainian traders began more actively redistributing flows in favor of cheaper European sources.
According to the Serbian business publication Parametar, Serbia’s investment landscape has changed significantly over the past 15 years. While European capital dominated almost unchallenged in the early 2010s, China has now become the largest investor among individual countries.
Between 2010 and 2025, Serbia attracted approximately 47.5 billion euros in foreign direct investment. Between 2010 and 2024 alone, EU countries accounted for about 24.5 billion euros, or 56% of all FDI.
During this period, China invested about 7.17 billion euros, surpassing any single European country. Next among the largest sources of capital are Russia—about 3.15 billion euros, Switzerland—2.52 billion euros, the United Kingdom—2.14 billion euros, and the United States—about 1 billion euros.
Moreover, China’s surge has essentially taken place over the past eight years. About 96% of Chinese investments between 2010 and 2023 occurred after 2016. In 2022, China invested approximately 1.38 billion euros; in 2023, 1.37 billion euros; and in 2024, 1.63 billion euros.
The main distinction of Chinese capital is its focus on large industrial facilities.
HBIS controls the steel mill in Smederevo, Zijin has become a key player in the Bora copper-gold complex, and Linglong has built a tire plant in Zrenjanin. HBIS Serbia and Serbia Zijin Copper are both among the country’s largest exporters.
That said, it would be incorrect to claim that China has displaced Europe from Serbia at this point. Total EU investment is approximately 3.4 times greater than that of China. European capital is distributed among thousands of companies, banks, retail chains, and manufacturing facilities, whereas Chinese investments are much more heavily concentrated in a few giant projects.
Another important trend is that the investment boom has begun to slow down. After a record 5.23 billion euros in foreign direct investment in 2024, the inflow in 2025 fell by about one-third—to 3.48 billion euros.
As a result, a unique two-tier investment model has emerged in Serbia: the EU remains the top investor as an economic bloc, while China has already become the top investor among individual countries. In fact, the structure of foreign investment increasingly mirrors Belgrade’s multi-vector foreign economic policy.
