ECONOMY
Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov said that the Cabinet has done such a good job with the economy over the last 16 months that it would be impossible for the incoming Cabinet to halt Ukraine’s economic expansion – no matter who is elected prime minister. He predicted continued economic growth in April and May after 8 percent growth in the first quarter.
Industrial output rose 20.8 percent month‑on‑month in April, the deputy prime minister’s office said. Industrial output was up 18.4 percent in the first four months of the year compared to the same period last year.
Consumer prices rose 4.3 percent in the first four months of this year after growing 12.1 percent in the same period a year ago, the State Statistics Committee said. Food products showed the biggest rise, up 5.9 percent. Non‑food products’ prices rose by 0.3 percent and services were up 1.9 percent.
A Ukrainian delegation in Washington requested that the U.S. grant the country the status of a country with a market economy during antidumping investigations, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said. The European Union granted Ukraine special status as a country with a market economy last year. Such status helps Ukraine avoid anti‑dumping sanctions. Canada, meanwhile, granted Ukraine’s metallurgy sector market status.
The Economy Ministry has completed an analysis of the nation’s free economic zones and may recommend that some be closed. Reduction in the number of tax breaks granted to enterprises operating in free economic zones and territories with special investment regimes is among the conditions the IMF has set for resumption of lending.
The leaders of Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova will hold ameeting in Ukraine later this month. The group, known as GUAAM, is discussing the possibility of introducing a free trade zone between member countries of the union, since Russia is blocking the introduction of a CIS free trade zone.
Wage arrears to state employees decreased by 51 percent in March and totaled Hr 103.4 million as of April 10, the State Statistics Committee said. More than one‑third of the existing arrears are owed to teachers, followed by health care employees at 26 percent of the total.
OIL AND GAS
Russia’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Ukraine’s state‑run oil‑and‑gas umbrella company, Naftogaz Ukrainy, to reverse earlier judgments by lower Russian courts that found Naftogaz guilty of illegally siphoning Russian gas. The decision is a boost to Russian Gazprom’s re‑insurance company, Monegasque de Reassurances s.a.m (Monaco), which is fighting to get Naftogaz Ukrainy to pay back the value of the gas it stole.
MANUFACTURING
Lviv Brewery, owned by Scandanavian group Baltic Beverage Holdings, completed a $10 million renovation that the company says will allow it to increase production to 20 million decaliters of beer per year. It can currently produce just 6 million decaliters of beer annually.
BANKING
Prominvestbank finished last year with profits of Hr 59 million, or 24 percent more than in 1999. The bank loaned $4.2 billion in 2000, a 60 percent increase over 1999.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
The number of subscribers to mobile telephone services increased to 1.13 million in April, Ukrainian News reported using company data. Kyivstar saw the largest growth during April, with 11.9 percent growth in its subscriber base, to 470,000. UMC’s client base grew 5.4 percent in April, to 590,000 subscribers, and Golden Telecom GSM grew by 4.7 percent, to 45,000 subscribers.
Golden Telecom GSM lowered rates for cellular telephone international connections and roaming by an average of 60 percent on May 1. Golden Telecom, a Ukrainian‑American joint venture provides a broad range of telecommunications services, including fixed‑line and cellular telephone services, as well as Internet access.
AEROSPACE
The world’s largest plane, the Antonov‑225, successfully got off the ground in Kyiv. The plane, a heavily reworked version of a plane originally designed to carry the former Soviet Union’s Buran space shuttle, took off from Hostomel airport outside Kyiv and flew for 15 minutes before landing.
METALLURGY
The Cabinet passed an official resolution on Ukraine’s recently negotiated 413,300‑tons pipe‑export quota to Russia.
The Luhansk pipe factory, meanwhile asked the Cabinet to allocate it an annual quota of 30,000 tons for export to Russia – an amount approximately equal to the factory’s average annual exports to Russia in recent years. The government’s plan for distribution of the export quota failed to include the Luhansk pipe factory, the Mariupol‑based Illich metallurgical plant, or the Dnipropetrovsk‑based Komintern metallurgical plant, depriving the companies of Russian sales.
