Business news from Ukraine

Ukraine’s foreign trade turnover in January-February 2023 totaled $16.6 billion, down 30% from the same period in 2022, the State Customs Service said. “In January-February this year, Ukraine imported goods worth $10.1 billion, exported goods worth $6.5 billion,” the State Customs Service said in a press release.

In January, the agency reported imports of $4.8 billion and exports of $3.1 billion. Thus, in February, imports rose to $5.1 billion and exports – to $3.4 billion, while the negative balance of trade remained at $1.7 billion.

As stated by the State Customs Service, taxable imports in January-February amounted to $8.1 billion, or 80% of total imports of goods.

According to published information, the tax burden per 1 kg of taxable imports was $0.44/kg, which is 53% higher than during the same period last year. Most of the goods were imported from China – $1.7 billion, Poland – $1 billion and Turkey – $760 million.

As noted, during the two months of 2023, the most goods were exported to Poland – $953 million, Romania – $609 million and China – $605 million.

According to press release, the main import categories were: machinery, equipment and transport – $2.9 billion, 17.6 billion UAH were paid to the budget, or 27% of customs duties, fuel and energy products – $2.6 billion, 16.2 billion UAH were paid, or 25%, chemical products – $1.7 billion, 11.5 billion UAH were paid, or 18%.

The top three most exported commodities from Ukraine were foodstuffs – $4.3 billion, metals and metal products – $568 million, machinery, equipment and transport – $521 million.

The State Customs Service summed up that during the customs clearance of exports of goods for which the export duty was set, the budget was paid 223.3 million UAH.

The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-March 2022 decreased by 40 times compared to the same period in 2021 – to $31.6 million from $1271.6 million, the State Statistics Service reported.

According to its data, the export of goods from Ukraine for the reporting period increased by 2.9% compared to January-March 2021, to $14.101 billion, while imports decreased by 5.6%, to $14.132 billion.

The State Statistics Service clarifies that in March, compared to February 2022, the seasonally adjusted volume of exports decreased by 57.9%, to $2.483 billion, and imports, by 75.8%, to $1.663 billion.

The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in March 2022 was positive and amounted to $0.819 billion, while in February 2022 it was negative – $0.969 billion.

The export-to-import coverage ratio in the first quarter of this year amounted to 1.00 (in the first quarter of 2021 – 0.92).

The State Statistics Service specified that foreign trade operations were carried out with partners from 214 countries of the world.

The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in the first quarter of 2021 increased 4.3 times, to $1.049 billion from $0.247 billion in the same quarter of 2020, the State Statistics Service said on Friday.
According to the authority, in the first three months of this year, exports of goods and services grew by 7.6%, to $15.785 billion, while imports rose by 12.9%, to $16.834 billion.
As reported, in 2020, the deficit of foreign trade in goods and services of Ukraine amounted to $0.26 billion, which is 93.1% less than in 2019, and is associated with a decrease in the deficit in trade in goods by 54.6%, to $4.88 billion.