"Dear fellow Ukrainians," began President Viktor Yushchenko in his New Year's address to the nation. "We have a hard year behind us. We have lived through much - highs and lows, dramas and happiness." This was perhaps an understatement, given Ukraine's mercurial journey thorough 2007. The country enjoyed economic growth for the eighth straight year, with a figure of around 7% in 2007, fuelled by around…
On January 18, the Ukrainian government published a list of 28 state-run companies slated for privatisation this year. The most notable companies to be sold are fixed-line telecoms monopoly Ukrtelecom, ammonia fertiliser producer Odessa Portside Plant, and six regional energy distribution companies. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the ministry of finance have set goals to sell $1.7bn of state…
This week, the Ukrainian government progressed on the three major goals of its westward integration strategy: entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and economic integration with the European Union. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland President Viktor Yushchenko reiterated his country’s European ambitions…
Austria's leading metallurgical company, Voestalpine, is considering Ukraine as the site for its upcoming project to build one of Europe's biggest steel-producing mills. Voestalpine intends for the mill to produce more than 5m tonnes of steel annually. If built in Ukraine, it would account for 12% to 15% of domestic production, according to Andriy Gerus, an analyst at Kyiv investment bank Concorde.…
July's inflation figures reveal a drop in prices and seem to indicate a disinflationary trend in the coming months. As global inflationary pressures ease, the worst may well be over. Nonetheless, with inflation almost certain to be in double figures by the end of the year, and possibly topping 20% on current forecasts, elation could be somewhat tempered. Prices fell 0.5% in July against the previous…
Ukraine's banking industry has had a chilly start to the year, though the cold winds blowing though the financial sector have little to do with the sharp winter weather or the recent cutting of gas supplies by Russia. Until the second half of last year, the banking sector was one of the strongest performers in the Ukrainian economy and in Eastern Europe, recording solid increases in assets and capital…
When thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets last week to celebrate 14 years of independence from the USSR, the feeling of euphoria in Kiev was mixed with a sense of restiveness. With the economic growth rate slumping and political uncertainty lingering ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in March, the eight-month-old Orange Revolution finds itself under the cloud of unmet expectations.…
The uncertainty surrounding Ukrainian politics following the wholesale dismissal of the government last week comes at a challenging time for the country's economy. While the rift between the president and the sacked prime minister spelled out the end of the Orange movement, slowing growth figures released this week underscored the wider problem of weakening external demand and ebbing business investment…
Even if the recent political turbulence in Kiev kept most Ukrainian bankers on their toes, there were no signs of the kind of panic that occurred during the Orange revolution. Back then, a run on the banks and the local currency, the hryvnya, had a powerful effect, but this time, capital migration was widely thought much smaller. "We saw a slight migration of capital into real estate," Vladimir…
Eclipsing the entire privatisation revenue of the last 14 years, this week's landmark steel mill sell-off fuelled debate on the costs and benefits of Ukraine's controversial reprivatisation process. The sale's success has also raised the question of whether the government should accelerate the privatisation of its remaining state assets. By the end of auction day on October 24, it was clear…
