ECONOMY
Ukraine’s gross domestic product grew by 5.3 percent in January-August, compared to the same period last year, the government said. GDP totaled Hr 104 billion ($19.1 billion) in the first eight months of the year. Officials expect GDP to rise by 2 percent to 3 percent this year for the first time since independence in 1991.
Industrial output rose by 3.9 percent in January-August compared to the same period last year, the government said. Industrial production in August was up 13.7 percent over July.
The number of unemployed in Ukraine totaled 1.159 million in August or 4.2 percent of the workforce, unchanged from the previous month, the State Statistics Committee said. The official unemployment rate, widely seen as underestimating the real number of unemployed people in Ukraine, was 4.1 percent at the start of the year. The government forecasts the rate will rise to 6.7 percent by the end of the year.
BANKING
The Prosecutor General’s Office has extended the detention of the top managers of Slovyansky bank investigated on suspicion of tax evasion by three months, Ukrainian News said. The five Slovyansky managers, including the bank’s president and vice president, were detained in March. As the investigation proceeded, the National Bank banned Slovyansky from a number of key banking operations. Before the tax authorities began investigating Slovyansky, the bank was among Ukraine’s 10 largest banks.
FOREIGN TRADE
Ukraine posted a trade deficit of $161.69 million in the first seven months of the year compared to a surplus of $14.29 million in the same period a year ago, the State Statistics Committee said. Exports totaled $7.697 billion over the period, while imports stood at $7.859 billion. Neighboring Russia remained Ukraine’s main trading partner, accounting for 45.1 percent of imports and 22.8 percent of exports.
OIL & GAS
Ukraine processed 5.235 million tons of crude oil in January-August, sharply down from 8.095 million tons handled in the same period last year, the government said. Officials said oil processing plunged due to lower imports of crude from Ukraine’s traditional supplier Russia. Experts point to growing excise duties on oil exports from Russia, which boost prices on oil products within Ukraine. Last year Ukraine processed 10.6 million tons of crude, compared to 13.3 million refined in 1998. Ukraine’s six oil refineries can process up to 52 million tons a year.
Domestic output of crude oil and gas condensate fell by 2.1 percent in January-August to total 2.469 million tons, the State Statistics Committee said. Gas production totaled 11.9 billion cubic meters (bcm) over the same period, a 0.2 percent decrease compared to the first eight months of 1999. Last year Ukraine extracted 3.791 million tons of oil and 18.0 bcm of natural gas. The country consumes annually around 20 million tons of oil and some 75 bcm of natural gas.
Ukraine’s second largest oil refinery LyNOS will get 1 million tons of crude from Russian oil major Tyumen Oil Company during October-December, TOC’s Ukrainian subsidiary official said. TOC paid about $10 million in July to acquire a 67.41 percent stake in LyNOS. The Lysychansk-based LyNOS is capable of refining 16 million tons of crude annually, but refined about 460,000 tons in the first half of the year, up from about 300,000 tons in the same period of 1999.
Elektrim Volt, a Polish manufacturer of electrical engineering equipment, will supply spare parts to Russia and Ukraine in exchange for oil, the company said, according to the Polish News Bulletin. The total value of Elektrim Volt’s equipment exports to former Soviet Union nations is estimated at $3.5 billion, and companies from the region “clearly prefer barter transactions over currency payments,” Elektrim said.
AGRICULTURE
Ukrainian farms harvested 478,900 hectares of sunflowers, threshing 610,000 tons of sunseed by Sept. 18, Reuters reported. Sunseed yields averaged 1.27 tons per hectare compared to last year’s 1.04 tons. Traders say Ukraine’s 2000 sunflower seed harvest may total 3 million tons, well above last year’s bumper crop of 2.75 million tons.
Farms in southern Ukraine have started harvesting corn, and officials hope for a bumper crop to offset this year’s disastrous wheat harvest, Reuters reported. The Agriculture Ministry estimates the corn crop might weigh in at more than 3 million tons compared to last year’s 1.7 million. Ukraine harvested a meager 10.8 million tons of wheat in the 1999-2000 season, even below last season’s paltry 13.5 million tons, and the government has repeatedly said a bumper corn crop might compensate for a lack of early grains. Analysts argue, however, that the corn crop is unlikely to exceed 2.2 million tons due to bad weather and a lack of funds for harvesting.
