UkrSibbank has been subjected to cyber attacks for several days, but successfully defends against them, according to the website of the financial institution.
“We are making every effort to quickly defeat the “attack” and restore full access to all our services. We apologize for the temporary inconvenience and thank you for your understanding”, – said UkrSibank.
The financial institution explained that to resist cyber attacks and protect customers, it constantly adapts protection systems and applies new mechanisms of counteraction, which may lead to short-term inaccessibility of Internet platforms: the bank website, UKRSIB online and UKRSIB business.
At the same time it’s underlined that bank’s clients can safely pay by its cards in trade network and withdraw money from ATMs in Ukraine as well as abroad.
“We are waiting for positive news. Hold the line!” – summed up the financial institution.
UkrSibbank by total assets (129.8 billion UAH) at the beginning of May ranked 6th among 65 operating banks in Ukraine.
The National Bank of Ukraine in its Financial Stability Report, published this week, with reference to the survey of banks, indicated that after a certain break at the beginning of the war, cyber risk returned to the top three systemic risks. According to the graph it presented, there were three attacks per month in April and May that caused temporary disruptions, compared to zero to two in January and March.
The Board of Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the first review of the Extended Funding Facility (EFF) program for Ukraine and approved the immediate release of the second tranche of SDR 663.9 million (about $890 million) to be used for budget support.
“Officials have made significant progress in meeting their EFF commitments under difficult conditions, meeting all applicable quantitative performance criteria by the end of April and structural benchmarks by the end of June, and remain highly committed to the program,” the fund said in a release Thursday on its website.
At the same time, the fund noted that sustained accountability and momentum for reforms are needed to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability in the difficult period ahead.
“This includes maintaining a solid tax revenue base (including by refraining from measures that could undermine the tax base), supporting sustainable disinflation and exchange rate stability, maintaining a healthy banking sector, and advancing critical governance and anti-corruption reforms, including on asset declarations, financial monitoring and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecution Service (SAP),” the release specified.
The IMF added that it is also crucial that external financing of the budget and reconstruction projects continue on concessional terms, compatible with financial and debt sustainability.
Fiscal policy efforts should also focus on developing a National Revenue Strategy (NRS) that will anchor much-needed revenue mobilization to support reconstruction and social spending, it was pointed out. “Restoring the legal framework for midterm budget preparation, budget credibility, and debt management is also critical, coupled with measures to increase fiscal transparency and strengthen public investment management,” the Fund noted.
Commenting on the financing strategy and debt sustainability, the IMF stated that external support for the budget will continue to make up the bulk of budget financing, although mobilizing domestic financing along with avoiding issuance is still important.
The Fund added that in addition to the March 2023 commitment by the Ukraine Creditors Group (CCG) to restructure part of the official debt, there is a credible process for resolving external commercial debt, according to Fund staff.
Speaking of monetary and exchange rate policy, the IMF stressed that the program aims to further support sustainable disinflation and exchange rate stability, including by maintaining an adequate level of foreign exchange reserves while prudently managing wartime excess liquidity.
“As soon as conditions permit, the program will support a transition to a more flexible exchange rate, a further loosening of exchange controls, and a return to an inflation-targeting system,” the Fund pointed out without any specification of timing.
In the financial sector, the IMF called for continued vigilance, given that the true state of the banking system remains unclear and risks of further shocks, including nationalization of banks, remain. She said bank diagnostics, banking supervision reform, state bank governance and contingency planning remain high priorities.
The fund also stressed the importance of governance and anti-corruption reforms needed to quickly restore living standards and pave the way for EU accession, as well as build public and donor confidence, including in the postwar period.
“It will also be important to pursue a comprehensive strategy for critical spending during recovery and reconstruction, including on energy and procurement,” the IMF added.
As reported, the IMF and Ukraine reached a staff-level agreement on an updated set of economic and financial policies as part of the first review of the four-year $15.6 billion EFF program on May 30.
It was noted that all the quantitative performance criteria at the end of April and structural benchmarks at the end of May had been met, paving the way for the IMF board of directors to consider granting Ukraine the second tranche of the EFF program of about $900 million (SDR663.9 million).
The program was approved on March 31 this year, and the first tranche of $2.7 billion was allocated in early April as well. The program’s schedule assumes that Ukraine will receive three tranches of SDR664 million (about $900 million) after the first tranche in mid-June and October of this year and in late February of the following year based on the first, second and third revisions, when the fulfillment of obligations is estimated for the end of April, June and December of this year, respectively.
Germany has handed Ukraine a new military aid package that includes 16 Mercedes-Benz Zetros trucks, a TRML-4D radar station for IRIS-T SLM surface-to-air missile systems and a mobile demining system, the German government’s press service said Thursday.
In total, Germany’s new military aid package for Ukraine includes: 16 Mercedes-Benz Zetros trucks, a TRML-4D radar station for IRIS-T SLM surface-to-air missile systems, one mobile and protected demining system, three Biber bridge trucks and two border security vehicles.
Oil quotations are weakly rising on Friday morning after a moderate rise in prices at the end of the previous session.
The value of August futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $74.49 a barrel by 8:02 a.m., $0.15 (0.2%) above the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts rose $0.31 (0.4%) to $74.34 a barrel on Thursday.
The price of WTI crude futures for August at electronic trades of New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) increased by that time by $0.01, to $69.87 per barrel. The day before these contracts rose $0.3 (0.4%) to $69.86 a barrel.
Oil gets support from strong statistical data from the U.S. and signals about reduction of fuel reserves in the country.
On the eve of the U.S. Department of Commerce raised its estimate of the country’s GDP growth in January-March to 2% in annual terms from the previously announced 1.3%.
A day earlier it became known that oil reserves in the States last week fell by 9.6 million barrels instead of the expected decline by 4.8 million barrels, according to experts polled by S & P Global Commodity Insights.
Expectations of further monetary policy tightening by the leading central banks of the world are restraining factor for oil quotations.
Fed chairman Jerome Powell said earlier this week that most U.S. central bankers see the possibility of at least two more hikes in the benchmark interest rate. For her part, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said there was a high probability of a rate hike in the eurozone in July.
Ukraine’s state budget on Thursday received $1.215 billion in grant funds through the World Bank’s Multi-Donor Trust Fund: $1.2 billion from the U.S. and ;15 million from Finland.
“The grant funds are provided as part of the fifth additional funding under the project Supporting Public Expenditures for Sustainable Public Administration in Ukraine (PEACE in Ukraine). The purpose of the project is to partially compensate state budget expenditures, including social and humanitarian, not related to the sphere of security and defense,” the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.
It specified that the attracted grant financing will be used for remuneration of state bodies’ employees and teaching staff, pension payments, as well as payments under certain programs of state social assistance (IDPs, people with disabilities, low-income families and payments of housing and communal subsidies).
The Finance Ministry added that in cooperation with Deloitte Consulting, which implements the USAID SOERA project, it is monitoring the use of direct budget support from the US government, and with PriceWaterhouseCoopers Ukraine, an auditing company, is reviewing the agreed procedures in order to determine the eligible state expenditures made by Ukraine in 2022.
It is indicated that the size of the PEACE in Ukraine program reached $16.5 billion and EUR1.4 billion (IBRD loans, MIGA loans, grants of the Multi-Donor Trust Fund).
Every year about 0.5% of land in Ukraine is sold, although at the time of the launch of the land market it was expected that this figure would be 3%, said the Minister of Agrarian Policy Nikolay Solskyy during the broadcast of telethon “United News”.
According to his information, the cost of land depends on the region.
“This has always been the case, and the war has become an additional argument for differentiation of this issue. Before the war, the lowest cost per hectare was in the west of Ukraine, and in the central and eastern was about the same level. Now the proportion has changed – the prices in the frontline regions are lower than in western and right-bank Ukraine,” he said.
Solsky stated that in 2022 land prices, if “pegged to the hryvnia to the dollar,” showed a drop. However, now the situation has leveled off and the cost of a hectare of land continues to rise. This trend, in his opinion, will be permanent.
According to him, in 2021, when the land market began to function, 150 thousand hectares of agricultural land was sold in Ukraine. In 2022 – a little more than 100 thousand hectares.
“The land market continues to function. It functions, from my point of view, predictably and effectively. It is also an incentive for a very active for the wartime establishment of businesses that depend on the land market, in particular, orchards and berries,” – said the Minister.
He underlined that during 20 years 23 thousands of hectares of gardens have been planted in Ukraine and since autumn 2022 2500 hectares of new modern gardens with irrigation, modern management systems and seedlings have been announced and already spent money. The open land market has contributed to this. Because people invest in land only when it is their property.
The Minister noted that the land for its owners is a sacred concept, “a hope for the future, and hope is sold in the last place. Therefore, land in Ukraine is sold in exceptional cases – or on major holidays, or when disaster strikes. The reason for such a decision can be the death of a shareholder due to age, after which his children or grandchildren decide to sell, or another serious reason occurs in the family. That is why the percentage of contracts of sale/purchase of land in the country is low.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy does not foresee the activation of the land market and predicts that there will not be any factors provoking the growth of sales in the future. Even rising prices won’t cause an increase in land sales, the minister assured.
He added that at the moment there is an increase in land sales in eastern Ukraine, particularly in the frontline areas, which is logical and understandable.
Speaking of land mined and contaminated by explosives, the minister said that “their fate is quite clear – to demine, prepare (for agricultural work – IF) and sow again.” “This is an obvious task for farmers, local authorities, land owners and the state,” Solsky concluded.
