Daily monitor

Yesterday, the Bogdan Corporation suspended the construction of its plant in Russia, which was intended for the production of buses and passenger cars. The site was to be in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

The National Committee of Statistics has announced that the trade balance deficit in January–September 2008 reached USD 10.3 bln, which is USD 6.5 bln (171%) greater than the trade balance deficit in January–September 2007.

The National Committee of Statistics has announced that Ukraine’s industrial output contracted 7.6% MoM in October after falling 4.1% MoM in September.

For the period January-October 2008, Ukraine’s Bogdan Automobile Factory [LUAZ UZ, BUY], previously known as the Lutsk Automobile Plant (LuAZ), raised its car output by 82.6% to 77,720 cars from 42,563 cars for the same period in 2007. This data was released by the Bogdan Corporation.

The Bogdan Corporation, one of the largest producers on the Ukrainian automobile market, has won a tender for the supply of 83 buses to Batumi, Georgia. Serhiy Krasulia, the Press Secretary of the Bogdan Corporation, explained that these are small class A 092 buses. They were ordered by the Batumi City Administration.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) announced that M0 grew 1.5% MoM in October (22.2% YTD) and reached UAH 173.4 bln (USD 29.9 bln), while M2 grew 0.3% MoM (20.9% YTD) and reached UAH 479.0 bln (USD 82.7 bln).

Ukraine’s Minister of Finance, Viktor Pinzenyk, announced that the first part of the USD 4.5 bln approved IMF standby loan was received by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

According to Kommersant-Ukraine, Zaporizhstal [ZPST UZ, U/R] has negotiated a decrease in iron ore concentrate fine from USD 120 to USD 70 per mt. The newspaper cited Aleksandr Vilkul, the Honorary President of both Central and Pivnichnyy GOK, in reporting this development.

The Cabinet of Ministers has transferred a UAH 25 mln tranche from its national budget to the Zaporizhya City Council’s Executive Committee, earmarked for construction work on a bridge across the Dnepr River in 2008, which is being built as part of overall highway building plans.

Ukrsugar, the Ukrainian Association of Sugar Producers, appealed to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, requesting a temporary ban on the import of Belarusian sugar from the Free Trade Agreement.