The Business Confidence Index (BCI), calculated by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on a scale from zero to 100, rose to 50.1 points in September from 49.3 in August, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on Monday.
“In September, businesses positively assessed their current performance after two months of restrained expectations. A gradual recovery in production rates, the establishment of new supply routes, a decrease in the growth rate of raw material and energy costs, improved inflation and exchange rate expectations, and strong domestic demand led to an improvement in respondents’ expectations,” the regulator said.
In particular, in September, assessments of the economic situation slightly improved in industry, services and trade, respectively from 48.8 to 50 points, from 47.3 to 47.9 points and from 52.5 to 53.3 points.
Respondents in the industrial sector improved their assessment of their economic performance, given the gradual recovery in production, new ways of supplying products, and slowing inflation.
Enterprises expect prices for their own products to rise further (from 58.8 points in August to 61.4 points in September), while lower expectations of rising prices for raw materials and supplies (from 32.3 points to 30.9 points).
According to the central bank, respondents maintained positive expectations about the volume of manufactured products and new orders for them, as well as inventories of raw materials.
It is indicated that respondents expect new export orders for products at the level of the previous month. At the same time, negative assessments of work in progress have eased somewhat, while assessments of finished goods stocks have deteriorated.
According to the NBU, trade enterprises remain the most optimistic among other sectors: for the seventh month in a row, they have been assessing their performance positively. In particular, this is due to strong consumer sentiment, sufficient supply of goods, and slowing inflation. The sectoral index in September was 53.3, up from 52.5 in August.
It is emphasized that traders are set to further increase their turnover and the volume of goods purchased for sale. At the same time, against the backdrop of stronger forecasts of higher purchase prices, respondents softened their estimates of the growth in the value of goods purchased for sale, while maintaining positive estimates of inventories of goods for sale and weakening estimates of a decline in trade margins.
As for service companies, their assessments softened somewhat, while this is the only sector that retained negative assessments of its business activity, given the destruction of transport logistics, higher fuel prices, and weak demand. The sectoral index for services rose to 47.9 last month from 47.3 in August.
According to the central bank, unlike the previous two months, respondents expected a slight increase in the volume of services provided and mitigated negative expectations of new orders. However, after three months of positive expectations, they predict a decrease in the volume of services in progress.
According to the NBU, construction companies maintained positive assessments of their performance for the fifth consecutive month due to a revival in demand for mortgage loans under preferential government programs, budget financing for construction and road rehabilitation, and seasonal factors. However, the sectoral index still fell to 50.6 points in August from 51 points in August.
It is noted that builders were somewhat more confident about the growth in construction volumes and were set to increase new orders, as well as purchases of raw materials and supplies. Also, respondents’ expectations for growth in the procurement and cost of contractor services have significantly increased, while negative assessments of their availability have softened.
Overall, most respondents expect their own products and services to rise in price amid rising purchase prices.
As for employment, the NBU assesses it as “heterogeneous.”
For the third month in a row, trade companies have been expecting an increase in staff (51.4 points), while construction managers, like last month, do not expect any changes (50 points). At the same time, respondents in industry and services still expect a reduction in the total number of employees (48.2 and 47.2 points, respectively).
The NBU clarified that the monthly survey of enterprises was conducted from September 4 to 22. It involved 502 companies. Among the surveyed enterprises, 44.4% are industrial companies, 28.9% are service companies, 20.7% are trade companies, and 5% are construction companies; 32.3% of respondents are large enterprises, 29.3% are medium-sized enterprises, and 38.4% are small enterprises.
At the same time, 31.9% of the surveyed enterprises carry out export and import operations, 9.6% – only export operations, 15.5% – only import operations, 43% – do not carry out external economic operations.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau met with representatives of Canadian business in Toronto, the presidential press service reports.
“The participants of the meeting paid attention to the prospects for investing in Ukraine and the necessary prerequisites to start this process before the end of the war,” the statement said.
Zelenskyy thanked Canada for the assistance Ukraine receives and emphasized the importance of implementing projects to restore the country.
“We are very interested in your coming to Ukraine, very interested in the restoration of Ukraine – this is what we need today. These are all areas in which you are strong. We are very interested in your work, business and technology,” Zelenskyy said.
For his part, Trudeau emphasized the importance of economic support for Ukraine.
“A lot needs to be done in terms of humanitarian and military assistance. But there is also a lot to be done economically. So I am glad that we can discuss this with President Zelensky,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
It is noted that the meeting was attended by the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, his deputy Rostyslav Shurma, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada Chrystia Freeland, President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Oleksandra Chyczij, heads of companies operating in the investment, banking, export, construction, energy, technology, etc.
During his visit to the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the most influential American entrepreneurs and heads of major funds, the press service of the Presidential Office reported on Friday.
The meeting was organized with the assistance of JP Morgan, the world’s largest investment bank. The total value of assets under management of the funds whose managers participated in the event exceeds 30 trillion. In particular, according to the press service, the meeting was attended by Bloomberg LP founder Michael Bloomberg, Pershing Square Capital chairman Bill Ackman, Starwood Capital chairman Barry Sternlicht, Citadel LLC founder Ken Griffin, Blackstone investment company president Jonathan Gray, BlackRock deputy chairman Philip Hildebrand, Schmidt Futures charity chairman Eric Schmidt, Kraft Group chairman Robert Kraft and others.
“The parties discussed the prospects of involving the largest American business in Ukraine’s recovery and the implementation of investment projects. American entrepreneurs and financiers confirmed their readiness to make large-scale investments in Ukraine immediately after the end of the war and the receipt of security guarantees,” the press service reports.
President Zelenskyy also had a separate meeting with Larry Fink, chairman of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) announced online auctions for the lease of space at 21 railway stations. It is planned to put on Prozorro.Sales 53 objects, including at the stations in Kiev, Lviv, Uzhgorod, Truskavets, Krivoy Rog, Dnipro, Odessa, reported UZ on the page in Facebook.
“Ukrzaliznytsia stations continue to open their doors for business: online auctions for the lease of space at 21 stations have been announced. Food courts, cafes, bookstores, pharmacies, financial zones, beauty salons, flower stores…. We are confident that the changes are overdue, and they must be transparent,” the statement said.
The first online auctions in the Prozorro.Sales system will take place already on September 18. Winners of electronic bidding will be able to conclude lease agreements for two years and 360 days with the possibility of prolongation. At the first stage will be exhibited mainly zones with a small area, designed for vending machines, coffee machines, ATMs and terminals. In Kiev, zones for five ATMs and cafes are offered for rent.
UZ noted that they have studied the experience of train stations and airports in Europe, attracted local businesses and architects for consultations. In cooperation with Urban Experts, they defined the principles of zoning and a list of services that should be mandatory for railway stations.
Olympic champion Sergei Bubka said he has nothing to do with any business in the occupied territories.
“Since 2014, I have not been in the occupied territory. I was born on Ukrainian soil. I have always represented Ukraine around the world with great pride. I have always fought for Ukraine. But now a campaign to destroy my reputation has been launched against me,” he said in a video distributed on Wednesday.
“I, like every Ukrainian, made my choice from the very beginning – to be with Ukraine and to do everything possible in the fight against Russian aggression. Since 2014, I have not been in the occupied territories. I haven’t visited my relatives and I couldn’t even be at my mom’s funeral. I have nothing to do with any business in the occupied territories. My job is to support Ukrainian athletes and Ukrainian sport at the international level,” Bubka said.
“I will do everything so that the current generation of Ukrainian athletes will be able to realize their Olympic dream – to perform at the Olympic Games in Paris next year,” he stressed, adding, “To those who are trying to blacken my name, I would like to say: To fight for Ukraine in sports has always been an honor for me. To fight for the state interests of my country is the highest honor for me.”
Earlier, an investigation by Bihus.info was published, in which journalists suggest that the firm “Firm Montblanc” LLC, owned by Sergey and Vasyl Bubkas, is listed in the Russian registers.
Ukraine has a set of advantages for attracting significant investments and localizing modern production of global brands, with only security guarantees and accession to the EU required, Rostyslav Shurma, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on the air of the national marathon “United News”.
According to him, Ukraine’s prospects are well illustrated by the example of the dialog with Sweden.
“Sweden has very good not only military technologies, but also, first of all, engineering technologies. This is a very wide range. Therefore, Sweden has the entire range of machine building, a complete portfolio, and this is critically important for the reconstruction of Ukraine, because first of all, we will need a huge amount of equipment – both for infrastructure and for the construction of new enterprises and factories,” the deputy head of the OP noted.
He emphasized that such equipment is sold not only as engineering solutions, but also together with financial packages, which are usually provided through export credit agencies, and this is one of the issues being addressed today during negotiations with the Swedish side.
“We are talking about billions of dollars, but the main focus should be on the private sector. Our task is to create conditions that make it profitable for companies to come to Ukraine. We have very qualified people and a large set of mineral resources. We have all the conditions to carry out full-fledged rising of production from Southeast Asian countries to Ukraine. Two main factors remain: security (victory in the war, security guarantees and further accession to NATO) and EU accession (unimpeded access to markets and financing and a set of reforms that we are currently working on). In fact, this is the formula for big projects, great recovery, and a new economy,” added Rostyslav Shurma.
