Ukrainian companies increased imports of copper and copper products by 16% in value terms in January-September this year, up to $104.483 million, compared to the same period last year.
According to customs statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine on Tuesday, exports of copper and copper products increased by 19.1% to $65.514 million over the period under review.
In September, the country imported copper worth $11.659 million and exported it for $7.290 million.
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine increased imports of copper and copper products by 2.2 times compared to 2022 – up to $140.795 million, while exports decreased by 20.1% to $72.078 million.
Copper is widely used in electrical engineering, pipe manufacturing, alloys, medicine and other industries.
In January-June 2024, VUSO Insurance Company (Kyiv) collected UAH 1.395 billion in gross premiums, which is 17.38% more than in the same period in 2023, RA Standard Rating reported in information on the confirmation of the company’s financial strength rating at uaAA on the national scale. According to the rating agency’s website, the insurer’s revenues from individuals increased by 7.06% to UAH 884.291 million, and from reinsurers – by 43.05% to UAH 18.401 million. Thus, the share of individuals in the insurer’s gross written premiums in the first half of 2024 amounted to 63.39%, and the share of reinsurers amounted to 1.32%.
Insurance payments sent to reinsurers for the specified reporting period compared to January-June last year increased by 84.14% to UAH 171.987 million, the reinsurer participation ratio increased by 4.47 percentage points (p.p.) to 12.33%.
The company’s net written premiums for the first half of the year increased by 11.68% to UAH 1.223 billion, and earned premiums – by 21.31% to UAH 1.251 billion.
In January-June 2024, VUSO paid UAH 722.269 million to its clients, which is 64.64% higher than the volume of insurance payments and reimbursements for the same period in 2023. The claims ratio increased by 14.87 p.p. to 51.78%.
At the same time, the company’s financial results have improved significantly: profit from operating activities in the first half of 2024 amounted to UAH 101.017 million, and net profit increased 21.97 times to UAH 34.709 million compared to the same period a year earlier.
As of July 1, 2024, the insurer’s assets decreased by 0.59% to UAH 1.515 billion, while equity showed an increase of 5.62% to UAH 651.966 million. At the same time, the company’s liabilities decreased by 4.81% to UAH 863.513 million, while cash and cash equivalents increased by 0.04% to UAH 557.732 million.
RA notes that as of the reporting date, the company formed a portfolio of investments in domestic government bonds in the amount of UAH 231.140 million, which in total covered 91.36% of the company’s liabilities. The balance of funds in the centralized insurance reserve funds (MTIBU) of the insurer amounted to UAH 311.823 million.
VUSO Insurance Company was founded in 2001. The company holds 50 licenses: 34 – for voluntary and 16 – for compulsory types of insurance, and is represented in all regions of Ukraine. VUSO is a member of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTIBU) and the Ukrainian Insurance Federation (UIF), as well as a participant in the Direct Claims Settlement Agreement and a member of the Nuclear Insurance Pool.
Global public debt may exceed $100 trillion (93% of global GDP) in 2024, according to the Fiscal Monitor report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday.
It is expected to continue to grow in the medium term and may rise to 100% of GDP by 2030.
At the same time, under the most unfavorable scenario, global debt could be almost 20 percentage points higher than the baseline forecast and reach 115% of GDP in 2026.
“Debt stabilization (or reduction) is likely to require much more significant fiscal adjustments than currently planned. Now is the right time to restore fiscal buffers, and delaying them is costly,” the report says.
The IMF believes that public debt will continue to grow in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Italy, and South Africa.
“While debt is projected to stabilize or decline in about two-thirds of countries, it will remain well above levels projected before the pandemic,” the report says. Moreover, the countries that are not expected to stabilize account for more than half of the world’s debt and about two-thirds of global GDP.
Government spending to address the problems of the “green transition” in the energy sector, population aging and security issues is likely to increase fiscal pressure in the coming years, according to the Fund’s experts.
“It’s time for governments to get their act together,” said Era Dabla-Norris, IMF Deputy Director for Fiscal Affairs. – “All countries need a strategic turnaround to reduce debt risks.
For more information about public debt and possible country defaults, please watch the video on the YouTube channel of the Experts Club think tank: https://youtu.be/gq7twYrWuqE?si=0WcmU20F95oeVKZp
Insurers in 2024 will focus on increasing investment in private markets, clean energy infrastructure and innovative technologies. According to the Reinsurance News website, this is according to the 13th annual Global Insurance Report by asset management company BlackRock.
For the third consecutive year, the report found that the majority of insurers plan to increase private market allocations, with 91% of respondents indicating they will do so in the next two years.
That figure reaches 96% for insurers in Asia Pacific and North America. The report is based on information from 410 insurance investors in 32 markets managing approximately $27 trillion in assets.
“With 2024 expected to be a landmark election year, insurers are increasingly concerned about how political uncertainty could impact macroeconomic risks, citing regulatory changes (68%) and rising geopolitical tensions and fragmentation (61%) as top concerns,” the report notes.
In addition, market risks such as interest rate volatility (69%) and liquidity problems (52%) were identified as critical.
Despite these challenges, 74% of insurers have no plans to change their current risk profiles. Many insurers cited the value of partnerships in improving their internal expertise for risk assessment and portfolio management, with 40% of respondents emphasizing that an investment partner that understands both their insurance business and operating model is critical to achieving their strategic goals.
In the public markets, 42% of insurers plan to increase investments in government and agency bonds, while 33% focus on inflation-linked bonds, as 46% view inflation as a significant macroeconomic risk. In addition, 44% of insurers are looking to increase their holdings in cash and short-term instruments to maintain liquidity.
BLACKROCK, clean energy, INNOVATION, INSURERS, INVESTMENT, private markets
Atlas Global Energy, a company with Turkish investments, plans to build new wind energy facilities in Zhytomyr region, Vitaliy Bunechko, head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration, said following a meeting on Monday with Onur Kopcuoglu, the company’s technical director in Ukraine.
“We discussed the prospects for cooperation and project implementation in the region. We are confident that the new wind farm project will be another example of our fruitful cooperation and will open up new prospects for Ukraine’s energy independence,” he wrote on Facebook.
Bunechko noted that Zhytomyr region already has alternative energy projects (SPPs, hydroelectric power plants, and biogas plants) with a total installed capacity of more than 240 MW, and about 60% of boiler houses in the region run on alternative fuels.
He called the construction of wind power plants “a logical development of this track.”
Bunechko also noted that even before the full-scale invasion, the region was recognized by the international Doing Business rating as the best region in Ukraine for doing business, and none of the major investors left during the war.
“On the contrary, international companies are investing additional funds in the development of their own production in our region. We are now paying special attention to the development of alternative and distributed energy. For us, this is not only an environmental agenda, but also a wartime challenge. After all, this configuration of the power system is more resistant to enemy attacks,” explained the head of the UGA.
Atlas Global Energy’s website states that it is a renewable energy development company that has been operating in Ukraine since 2016 with a portfolio of more than 300 MW of wind and photovoltaic projects. In particular, it is reported about a 60 MW wind farm in Lviv region and a 50 MW solar power plant in Kherson region.
INGO Insurance Company (Kyiv), based on the results of the Meteorological Protection index insurance program from Syngenta, paid compensation to farmers in the season of 2024 for a total amount of UAH 231 million, which is ten times more than a year earlier.
This is the highest compensation rate since the program was launched in 2016. 97% of the farmers who joined the program in the 2024 season received record insurance indemnities due to the extremely dry and hot season during the flowering and grain filling periods. The program allowed 349 farms to partially reduce losses from adverse weather conditions, the company said in a statement.
“This season, Meteorological Protection coverage has expanded by 88% to 502 thousand hectares. Due to unfavorable weather conditions, the amount of compensation increased tenfold, and the average compensation rate was 52%. We support Ukrainian farmers with agro-technological innovations, services and unique financial products even in the frontline areas,” says Roman Khrypko, Head of Financial Programs and Insurance Solutions at Syngenta.
It is emphasized that almost 50% of the total compensation amount was paid to farms in Kharkiv, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
The main crops covered by insurance payments in the 2024 season are corn and sunflower with a total area of 335 thousand hectares and a compensation amount of UAH 225 million. Agricultural producers have insured sunflower and corn crops in 1039 applications, including 1033 applications with 99% indemnity and 386 with 100% indemnity.
The Meteorological Protection program covers the entire territory of Ukraine. In the 2024 season, Meteorological Protection offered insurance for sunflower, grain, corn and rapeseed crops against three weather risks: drought, heat and rain. The key period of the program is the flowering and grain filling phases. The terms of the program for 2025 are currently being agreed upon to further support agricultural producers.
At the center of the Meteorological Protection mechanism is an index, a special indicator that characterizes the impact of the intensity of a particular risk on crop yields. The threshold value of this index characterizes the occurrence of an insured event and corresponds to a critical yield loss for an agricultural producer, which is determined during the development of the insurance product. The index should show very accurately how a certain risk affects crop yields, and this mainly depends on the quality of the insurance product development, namely the data, mathematical model, etc. Within the program, the meteorological data point for fixing the index is a 6×8 km area, which is considered to be a perfectly acceptable area for heat or drought insurance, as these weather events cover a relatively large area.
Syngenta is a part of the Syngenta Group, one of the world’s largest agricultural technology developers with about 60 thousand employees. The company operates in more than 100 countries and works closely with producers and partners to achieve its four sustainable development priorities.
Over 22 years of operation in Ukraine, the company has built a team of agricultural experts, strong partnerships with scientific institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and continues to invest in the development of business infrastructure.
