The National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (NSSMC) sees opportunities for the revival of the municipal bond market in Ukraine, is actively working toward this goal, and supports a bill on preferential taxation of individual income from these instruments, said Commission Chairman Oleksiy Semenyuk.
“I believe this is possible (the revival of the municipal bond market). Moreover, this process is already underway on a fairly large scale,” he said during a discussion on the prospects of the stock market in Ukraine, organized by the Kyiv International Economic Forum last week.
Semenyuk clarified that a meeting is tentatively scheduled for October 2 with representatives of cities with populations of 100,000 or more—which will also include representatives from the Ministry of Finance—to discuss the main issues hindering the progress of this process.
“The main problems there are clear and have been identified… I want to note that I believe in municipal bonds,” emphasized the Commission chairman.
According to him, cities have development budgets, and they currently have significant needs for a rapid transition to energy independence, so bonds are an attractive instrument for them.
Semenyuk believes that municipal bonds could also be of interest to investment funds and local revenue-generating enterprises.
At the same time, Serhiy Fursa, deputy director of securities trading at the investment firm Dragon Capital, expressed doubt that municipal bonds would attract investors under current conditions, when the Ministry of Finance is placing domestic government bonds on the market, the income from which is tax-exempt.
“This would be a good instrument, but, again, we have domestic government bonds and their yields, as well as the need to provide a risk premium. By the way, I don’t quite understand—and this is a question for analysts—how to assess the solvency of cities in Ukraine. At the moment, I don’t really see much demand for this,” the expert noted.
According to him, the main buyers right now are individuals who are focused on returns and tax benefits.
The head of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) reported that two bills on tax incentives are currently being considered for passage through the Verkhovna Rada. He clarified that the first concerns investment accounts exempt from personal income tax provided the investment term is at least three years, while the second concerns the “5+5” scheme: a 5% personal income tax rate and a 5% military levy instead of the current 18% + 5%. Semenyuk added that discussions regarding the latter bill are ongoing with the Ministry of Finance.
bond, city, INVESTMENT, NSSMC, TAX
Luxembourg has retained first place for the second year in a row in the global quality of life ranking compiled by the Deutsche Bank Research Institute.
Copenhagen took second place, and Amsterdam came in third. Vienna and Munich tied for fourth place, followed by Frankfurt, Helsinki, Geneva, Zurich, and Edinburgh.
The ranking takes into account purchasing power, safety, healthcare, cost of living, housing affordability, commute time, environmental pollution, and climate.
Cities in Western and Northern Europe dominate the top ten. At the same time, the world’s largest financial centers ranked significantly lower: Paris came in 43rd, New York 46th, London 47th, and Hong Kong 55th.
Their rankings are dragged down by expensive real estate, high living costs, long commutes, and environmental issues. Thus, high salaries alone do not guarantee a city’s leadership in quality of life.
In Numbeo’s European sample (Europe: Current Crime Index by City), the highest Crime Index is recorded in Marseille (France) – 66.7. It is followed by Birmingham (UK) – 63.8, Grenoble (France) – 62.6, Naples (Italy) – 62.3, and Coventry (UK) – 61.7.
At the bottom of the European list, i.e., among the most peaceful cities according to the ranking, are The Hague (Netherlands) – 19.9, Tampere (Finland) – 20.4, Eindhoven (Netherlands) – 20.9, as well as Trondheim (Norway) and Utrecht (Netherlands) – 21.0 each.
Numbeo publishes crime/safety indices based on user surveys. The current version is continuously updated and is based on data from the last five years. The project has been running since 2009 and is widely cited in the media and city comparison services, but the indicators reflect subjective perceptions of safety and are not a substitute for official statistics.
Several Ukrainian cities are represented in the current Numbeo Crime Index ranking. Odesa has the highest score among them (55.2), followed by Dnipro (53.7), Kharkiv (47.2), Kyiv (45.5), and Lviv (37.2).
In Numbeo’s global list, these cities are ranked as follows: Odesa – 160th, Dnipro – 177th, Kharkiv – 233rd, Kyiv – 247th, and Lviv – 320th.
The bottom of the current global ranking is occupied by Pietermaritzburg (South Africa) – 82.8 and Pretoria (South Africa) – 81.8, while Abu Dhabi (UAE) – 11.0 is listed as the safest city in the table. In Europe, Marseille has the highest Crime Index (66.7) and The Hague has the lowest (19.9).
Numbeo was launched in April 2009. The Crime Index is based on user surveys and reflects a subjective assessment of safety rather than statistics on reported crimes. The current rating is continuously updated and is based on data from the last five years, so the results should be interpreted as an indicator of perception and used in conjunction with official sources.
Uzhhorod is now the most expensive city in Ukraine in terms of rental housing costs, followed by Lviv and Kyiv, according to the LUN real estate portal.
“In the first two years of the war, Lviv was considered the most expensive city for renting apartments, but now the situation has changed. In July, Uzhhorod became the most expensive city – a one-bedroom apartment here costs an average of UAH 17.7 thousand per month. This is more expensive than in the capital or in Lviv,” the press release says.
According to LUN, the average cost of renting a 1-room apartment in Lviv as of July is 16.5 thousand UAH/month, in Kyiv – 15 thousand UAH/month.
Next in the ranking are Chernivtsi – 12.3 thousand UAH/month on average for renting a one-bedroom apartment, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kropyvnytskyi, Poltava, Rivne – 12 thousand UAH/month, Cherkasy – 10 thousand UAH/month, Khmelnytskyi – 9.5 thousand UAH/month, Ternopil – 9.4 thousand UAH/month.
“LUN” notes that Odesa, which was previously expensive for renting housing, now ranks 14th with 7 thousand UAH/month. The lowest prices are generally recorded in cities that are close to the frontline and suffer from military operations: Chernihiv (5.8 thousand UAH/month), Zaporizhzhia, Sumy (5.5 thousand UAH/month), Mykolaiv (5 thousand UAH/month), Kharkiv and Kherson (4 thousand UAH/month).
