Contents tagged with Economy of Ukraine

  • IMF Recommends that Ukraine Raise Excise Tax on Alcohol and Tobacco

    By increasing the excise tax on cigarettes and beer, Ukraine will add approximately UAH 28.7 billion and UAH 4.5 billion to its budget, respectively in 2016, as stated in a report by the International Monetary Fund. The text of this report was made available to the Ukrainian news agency UKRINFORM.

    Based on the IMF estimates, by increasing the excise tax on tobacco by 40% Ukraine would receive an income of UAH 28.7 billion (1.3% of GDP) this year.  Raising the excise tax on beer by 100% would …

  • Ukraine's Foreign Exchange Reserves increase to 13.4 billion dollars

    As of January 2016, the international reserves of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) have increased from 100 million dollars to 13.4 billion dollars.This was reported by the head of the NBU, Valery Gontareva, at a parliamentary meeting held in Kiev on Wednesday.“We haven’t lost a single penny of our stocks in January, which is a good sign,” she said.Gontareva originally predicted reserve growth this year to be between 15 and 18 billion dollars.  However, this prediction failed due to the pause …

  • Jaresko: The IMF Has Accepted Ukraine's Budget For 2016

    The Minister of Finance of Ukraine, Natalie Jaresko, stated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has no comments on the adopted Law on the State Budget for 2016. "As for the budget there are no comments on our obligations to the IMF.  In principle, it was accepted as a whole," she said.

    At the end of last week during the World Economic Forum in Davos the Ukrainian delegation met with the Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde.  As reported by the Ministry of Finance, the main …

  • Ukrainian Media: Former Swedish Prime Minister a Possible Successor to Yatsenyuk

    The Government of Ukraine may be headed by the former Swedish Prime Minister, Carl Bildt, instead of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, as reported by Glavcom, citing a source in the presidential administration.

    The appointment of Bildt, as the newspaper notes, would simplify the negotiations with international money lenders for Kiev, and would also allow President Poroshenko to take greater control of the activities of the government. In addition, such a personnel choice would help the authorities to shift …

  • Yatsenyuk Outlines Priorities of Cabinet of Ministers in 2016

    According to Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Ukrainian government in 2016 will implement policies aimed at opening new markets for Ukrainian products and creating new workplaces, as reported by the Glavnoe, citing Yatsenyuk during the program "10 minutes with the Prime Minister."

    "We will concentrate our forces on gaining all the possible advantages offered by the free trade zone agreement with the EU. A separate area of work will focus on the special trade missions of our …

  • EEU Countries do not Support Cutting Economic Ties with Ukraine

    The member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) composed of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia do not support Russia abandoning the free trade zone with Ukraine, which operates within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as reported by Viktor Khristenko, the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Union, after the meeting of the Presidents of the EEU member states in Moscow.

    "Within the next six months the legal mechanisms that allow national governments to …

  • Dutch bank lists Ukraine as one of the most promising new markets

    Dutch ABN AMRO Bank listed Ukraine as one of the countries with a promising market that can replace the BRIC countries, as stated on the bank’s official website.

    Ukraine was placed first on the list of four promising countries. Also included on this list were Vietnam, Mexico and Ghana.

    "Yes, the country still has problems in its relations with Russia. However, the country's foreign trade is increasingly reorienting itself in the direction of the West. Ukraine is an attractive option for the …

  • Ukraine won't ask the Kremlin's permission to choose its direction of development

    The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, has promised that authorities will not take into account the interests and suggestions of Russian leaders when selecting the pace and direction for the development of the state.

    "Our choice to integrate into Europe will be discussed exclusively with the Ukrainian people. It's not the Kremlin's business, no one is going to ask for their permission or their counsel on the development of the state," he said in an interview with Inter TV on Sunday …

  • Yatsenyuk explains the moratorium on "Yanukovych's debt"

    The Prime Minister of Ukraine has cited ‘political bribery’ as the rationale for the suspension of payments on the Ukrainian debt to Russia in the amount of $3.5 billion. This was stated during his "10 minutes with the Prime Minister about unity" speech on the 5th channel, as reported by the Ukrainian news agency UKRINFORM.

    "This debt was nothing more than a political bribe by Moscow to its puppet who ruled Ukraine.  This bribe was to ensure that Ukraine would not have a visa-free regime or …

  • Winners of Naftogaz Gas Supply Tenders

    British and French companies won the first tenders for gas supply to Ukraine for the EBRD.

    Noble Clean Fuels Ltd (United Kingdom) and ENGIE SA (France) won the first three tenders for gas supply to the joint-stock company Naftogaz of Ukraine. These were funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), according to the Naftogaz Press Service.

    Naftogaz and the EBRD have successfully completed the first three tenders for gas supply to Ukraine with a mortgage loan.  The …