Kyiv has returned to the ranking of the most expensive cities to live in, ranking 132nd out of 173, according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The report notes that in 2022, the Ukrainian capital was not included in the ranking due to Russian aggression, and in 2021 it ranked 118th. Due to the lack of data for 2022, prices in Kyiv were not included in the calculation of average inflation.
The World Cost of Living (WCOL) study was conducted by the EIU from August 14 to September 11, 2023, based on prices for the most commonly used goods and services. In the world’s largest cities, prices have risen by an average of 7.4% over the past year, in terms of local currencies. This is slightly slower than the 8.1% price increase in 2022, but significantly higher than the trends of 2017-2021.
Singapore and Zurich share the first and second places in terms of cost of living, while New York and Geneva take the third and fourth places. The top ten most expensive cities also include Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Paris, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv and San Francisco. Western Europe accounts for four of the top ten most expensive cities in the ranking, due to persistent inflation and rising food and clothing prices, along with the appreciation of the euro and the region’s currencies.
Damascus (Syria) remains the cheapest city in the world. The Russian cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg have seen the largest drops in their rankings – by 105 places to 142nd place and by 74 places to 147th place, respectively.
The EIU compares more than 400 price indicators for more than 200 products and services in 173 cities.
Metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine in April this year increased steel production by 2.04 times compared to the same period last year – up to 574 thousand tons from 281 thousand tons.
In March 2023 it was smelted 527 thousand tons of steel.
In this case, Ukraine took 22nd place in the ranking of 63 countries – the world’s main producers of these products, compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
According to Worldsteel, in April 2023 recorded a decline in steel production to April 2022 in most of the top ten countries, except India, South Korea, Russia and Iran.
The top ten steel-producing countries in April are as follows: China (92.640 million tons, down 1.5% on April-2022), India (10.721 million tons, up 3.2%), Japan (7.239 million tons, “minus” 3.1%), USA (6.586 million tons, “minus” 5.3%), RF (6.380 million tons, “plus” 1.9%), South Korea (5,689 mln tons, more by 3%), Germany (3,197 mln tons, decreasing by 3,8%), Iran (3,063 mln tons, increasing by 5,9%), Brazil (2,773 mln tons, minus 5,9%) and Turkey (2,678 mln tons, less by 20,6%).
Overall, steel production in April this year decreased by 2.4% compared to the same period last year to 161.377 million tons.
For the four months of 2023, the top ten steel-producing countries are as follows: China (354.390 million tons, up 4.1%), India (43.897 million tons, up 3%), Japan (28.861 million tons, down 5.3%), USA (26.061 million tons, down 4.1%), Russia (25.094 million tons, down 0.6%), South Korea (22.355 million tons, minus 0.4%), Germany (12.354 million tons, down 5.9%), Brazil (10.585 million tons, minus 8.8%), Turkey (10.1 million tons, down 21.3%) and Iran (9.710 million tons, up 0.1%).
A total of 63 countries produced 622.736 million tons of steel in January-April, which is 0.3% less than during the same period in 2022.
In this case, Ukraine produced 1.809 million tons of steel, which is 2.2 times, or 54% less than in January-April 2022. Is in 25th place at the end of four months-2023.
As reported, at the end of 2022, the top ten steel producing countries were as follows: China (1.013 billion tons, down 2.1%), India (124.720 million tons, up 5.5%), Japan (89.235 million tons, down 7.4%), USA (80.715 million tons, down 5.9%), Russia (71.5 million tons, down 7.2%), South Korea (65, 865 million tons, down 6.5%), Germany (36.849 million tons, down 8.4%), Turkey (35.134 million tons, down 12.9%), Brazil (33.972 million tons, down 5.8%) and Iran (30.593 million tons, up 8%).
In 2022, Ukraine ranked 23rd with the production of 6.263 million tons of steel (“minus” 70.7%).
In total, 64 countries produced 1 billion 831.467 million tons of steel in 2022, which is 4.3% less than in 2021.
Founder and CEO of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, Elon Musk surpassed Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos to top the Forbes list of the world’s richest people.
Musk’s fortune, according to the publication, was $219 billion as of March 11. At the same time, the amount given does not include Musk’s recently acquired 9.2% stake in Twitter.
Bezos’ net worth was $171 billion, he took second place on the list. Bezos has been the richest man in the world for the past four years.
The top 5 richest people in the world also include Frenchman Bernard Arnault ($158 billion) and Americans Bill Gates ($129 billion) and Warren Buffett ($118 billion).
Meanwhile, data cited by Forbes showed that the total net worth of the list’s dollar billionaires has fallen to $12.7 trillion from $13.1 trillion in 2021. And the list itself has become shorter by 87 positions – it consists of 2668 people. And yet, 40% of the new list of billionaires have been able to increase their wealth over the past year.
There are seven representatives of Ukraine on the list. In the highest place – 687th – Rinat Akhmetov with $ 4.2 billion. At the same time last year, with $ 7.6 billion, he occupied the 327th line.
Then come Victor Pinchuk – 1579th with $1.9 billion (a year ago – $2.5 billion), Vadim Novinsky and Konstantin Zhevago – 2190th with $1.3 billion (in 2021, respectively, $1.4 billion and $2.3 billion). billion), ex-owners of PrivatBank Gennady Bogolyubov and Igor Kolomoisky – respectively 2448th with $1.1 billion and 2578th with $1 billion (a year ago – $1.7 billion and $1.8 billion).
The list also included for the first time the co-founder of the fintech bank Revolut Vlad Yatsenko – $1.1 billion.
At the same time, the wealth of Russian billionaires has fallen by more than $260 billion. There are 34 fewer Russian citizens on the new list.
Of the 2,668 billionaires, 327 are women, up from 328 the previous year by Forbes. The number includes women who share their wealth with their spouses, the publication noted. At the same time, 101 women from the list are “self-made” billionaire, that is, they independently earned capital.
Forbes counted the most female billionaires in the USA (90), China (63) and Germany (35).
Ukraine in 2020 reduced steel exports to 15.2 million tonnes from 15.6 million tonnes a year earlier, but rose in the ranking of exporters from the tenth to the ninth place, according to the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).
According to the report, India was ranked higher than Ukraine last year among exporters with 17.1 million tonnes, Italy closed the top ten with 14.9 million tonnes, and China is still at the top of this list with 51.4 million tonnes, followed by Russia with 31.5 million tonnes and Japan with 29.8 million tonnes.
At the same time, due to the small volume of imports, Ukraine in the world ranking of net exporters in 2020 retained its fourth place with an indicator of 13.9 million tonnes, which is only slightly less than the 2019 indicator of 14 million tonnes.
The first place here is taken by Russia with 26.4 million tonnes, the second – by Japan with 24.8 million tonnes, the third – by South Korea with 16.1 million tonnes, while China is the fifth in this list with 13.5 million tonnes.
China was the largest importer of metal last year with 37.09 million tonnes, followed by the EU-28 with 32.6 million tonnes, excluding interregional trade, and the United States came third with 19.9 million tonnes.
In the ranking of net importers over 2020, the United States is leading with 13.6 million tonnes, the EU-28 is in the second place with 10 million tonnes, and Saudi Arabia is in the third place with 7.2 million tonnes.
Worldsteel recalls that in 2020 Ukraine produced 20.6 million tonnes of steel and took 12th place, the volume of pig iron production amounted to 20.4 million tonnes. At the same time, the country exported 3.1 million tonnes of pig iron last year, and its apparent consumption amounted to 17.3 million tonnes.
Apparent steel consumption in Ukraine in 2020, according to the association, amounted to 4.6 million tonnes, while consumption per capita – 105.5 kg.
Boryspil International Airport in the third quarter of 2019 and September 2019 ranked second in the ACI Europe rating in terms of passenger traffic growth among the airports intended for 10-25 million passengers per year.
According to data posted on ACI Europe’s website, in September (up by 27.6%) and in the third quarter (25.8% more), Boryspil airport ranked second following Milan airport (Italy) with a rise of 33.5% and 26.2% respectively.
In addition, Kharkiv International Airport was included in the top five ranking on the dynamics of passenger traffic growth among the airports for less than 5 million passengers. In September (66.3% more) it ranked second after Maribor Airport (Slovenia) with an increase of 92%, in the third quarter (up by 42.1%) following Targu Mures Airport (Romania, 113.5% more), Ohrid (Northern Macedonia, 53.8% more), and Turku (Finland, 52% more).
ACI Europe monthly compiles a rating of airports by passenger traffic, analyzing data from more than 230 European airports.
Airports Council International (ACI) is the only global airport sales office in the world. It is divided into branches: ACI Europe, ACI Africa, ACI Asia, ACI Latin American/Caribbean, ACI North America, and ACI Pacific.
For the first time, Ukraine has been included in the world rating pf operating oil and gas drilling rigs by Baker Hughes GE Rig Coun, in which it took the leading position in Europe in terms of the number of machines involved in drilling.
According to the press service of the Association of Gas Producers of Ukraine, which initiated including Ukraine in this rating, in May 186 drilling rigs operated in Europe (44 offshore platforms), almost half of which (84) worked in Ukraine.
Turkey (20 working machines) and the United Kingdom (16) follow Ukraine in the ranking, the association said.
“Over the past three years, Ukraine has carried out important reforms in domestic gas production, which consisted in improving the regulatory field and modernizing the relevant legislation. These changes are already noticed not only by Ukrainian but also by foreign investors – our country is becoming more attractive for them. Including Ukraine in the BHGE Rig Count index is extremely important because it demonstrates revival in the domestic market and serves as a good indicator for the leading gas producing and service companies to come to Ukraine,” executive director of the association Roman Opimakh said.
