Daily monitor

Ukraine’s merchandise deficit increased in October by USD 1.79 bln. Therefore, the merchandise deficit in January-October 2008 reached USD 16.07 bln, compared to USD 14.28 bln in January-September 2008.

Volodymyr Krotiuk, the Provisional Administrator of Prominvestbank, intends to approve the financial recovery program of the bank with state involvement.

On Friday, Ukraine’s Parliament passed the law “About reducing the influence of the world financial crisis on the construction sector in Ukraine” during its first reading.

Shareholders of the Kramatorsk “Pushka” Cement Plant [KRCS UZ, U/R] have added another issue – to not increase the company’s statutory fund – to the agenda for the upcoming EGM.

Cement output in November constituted 957 thsd metric tons, which is 18.6% less that in November 2007 and 26% less that in October 2008. The 11-month aggregated output constitutes 14.5 mln metric tons, while the 10-month growth rate was 5.2% YoY.

Luhanskteplovoz [LTPL UZ, U/R], one of the largest locomotive producers in Ukraine and the CIS, which is 76% owned by the Bryanskiy Machinery Plant (BMZ), has agreed with Russian Railway (RZD) on the production of 120 locomotive sections in 2009.

As of December 12, 2008 a total of 1.53 mln mt of sugar has been produced by domestic sugar plants in Ukraine. An overall 12.5 mln mt of sugar beet was processed, which is 22.8% less YoY. Moreover, 83% of all sugar plants that obtained government permission for sugar processing in the 2008/09 marketing year have completed their sugar processing season.

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has approved procedures for allocating money from the Stabilization Fund as loans for completing the construction of housing financed through mortgage loans.

Volodymyr Krotiuk, the Temporary Administrator of Prominvestbank, confirmed that the bank’s owners failed to conduct the additional issue of shares scheduled as a part of the required financial readjustment of this bank.

Passenger transportation volumes in Ukraine grew 2.4% YoY in January – November 2008, reaching 7.65 bln passengers, as stated in the recent National Committee of Statistics memo. The turnover of passengers reached 136.4 bln passenger-km, growing 5.1% YoY.