Dragon Daily
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Ukraine has reached agreement with Russian VTB concerning a $2bn loan, PM Mykola Azarov said on Friday, providing no other details. The loan, being the government’s largest external debt redemption this year, is maturing in early June. Pursuant to the original agreement signed in June 2010, the sides prolonged the loan every six months until maturity in June 2012, with the interest rate, which was subject to revision at the time of each extension, reportedly remaining unchanged at 6.68% p.a.
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May 21, 2012 download PDF
NBU continues with monetary easing
The NBU has further relaxed its reserve requirements for banks, decreasing the level of mandatory reserves that must be blocked in a separate central bank account from 60% to 50% starting from May 31. At the same time, the share of reserves to be kept with the NBU was increased from 30% to 40%.
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May 18, 2012 download PDF
Ukrainian economy: IP growth flat y-o-y in April, retail turnover stays strong
Ukraine’s industrial production (IP) was flat y-o-y in April, improving slightly from -1.1% y-o-y in March but underperforming both Bloomberg consensus and our estimate of +1.3% y-o-y. The improvement was fueled mainly by machinery output, which accelerated to +6.5% y-o-y from -5.6% in March on stronger railcar production. Growth in the chemical industry picked up (+10.5% y-o-y vs. 9.0% in March) while metallurgy slowed its pace of decline (-0.2% y-o-y vs. -1.6%). However, these minor positives were fully offset by deterioration in other industries, including food processing, oil refining and utilities.
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May 08, 2012 download PDF
Headline CPI slows further to 0.6% y-o-y in April, producer prices stabilize at close to 7% y-o-y
Ukraine’s consumer prices were flat m-o-m in April, slowing in y-o-y terms to 0.6% from 1.9% in March. Producer prices increased by 3.7% m-o-m and accelerated slightly on a y-o-y basis, to 6.9% from 6.5%in March, remaining close to 7% for the third consecutive month.
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The NBU announced yesterday its reserves rose by 1.7% m-o-m or $532m in April, to $31.7bn (still down 0.4% YTD). The increase resulted mostly from the central bank’s F/X purchase interventions as the effects of the revaluation of non-USD denominated reserves, change in the gold holdings and volume of government F/X operations were relatively small.
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May 03, 2012 download PDF
C/A gap narrows sharply to $0.3bn, F/A balance remains positive in March, pushing BoP into surplus
Ukraine’s current account (C/A) deficit narrowed sharply to $0.3bn in March, from $1.3bn in February, bringing the 1Q12 deficit to $1.2bn (0.7% of 2012E GDP), down from the $1.3bn gap in 1Q11. The financial account surplus shrank to $0.7bn last month, from $1.2bn in February, bringing the 1Q12 record to $0.6bn (vs. $2.1bn in 1Q11). The overall balance of payments position thus became positive in March for the first time since August 2011, totaling $0.4bn, though the 1Q12 tally remained negative at $0.6bn
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NBU reserves provisionally totaled $31.6bn as of April 27 (+1.6% m-o-m, still -0.5% YTD), with the Bank buying $303m from the F/X market since the beginning of the month, up from $153m in March, chief advisor to the NBU governor Valeriy Lytvytskiy said on April 27.
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May 03, 2012 download PDF
1Q12 real GDP provisionally up 1.8% y-o-y
Ukraine’s real GDP rose by 1.8% y-o-y in 1Q12, slowing from 4.7% growth in 4Q11 and declining by 0.3% q-o-q in seasonally adjusted terms, according to provisional estimates from the State Statistics Service (SSS). The breakdown of GDP growth by component and more precise quarterly data are due to be released on June 11.
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Apr 24, 2012 download PDF
Opposition parties unite for elections
Ukraine’s two largest opposition parties, Batkivshchyna (led by jailed ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko) and Front for Change (headed by former parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk), announced yesterday they have united for parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 28 and will run on a single party ticket and jointly nominate candidates for single-seat constituencies. The elections will be held based on a 50/50 mixed system combining single-member constituencies and party lists
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Apr 19, 2012 download PDF
Industrial output declines by 1.1% y-o-y in March; other sectors show mixed performance
Ukraine’s industrial production (IP) declined by 1.1% y-o-y in March, slowing from 1.6% y-o-y growth in February and bringing the 1Q12 tally to +0.9% y-o-y.