Economy and politics

According to information from Ukraine’s State Treasury, the budget profits in January reached UAH 12.2 bln (USD 1.6 bln), which is 1% higher than the planned figure. Previously, the Treasury reported that as of January 26, 2009, the budget profits were 55% below the planned indicator for the entire January.

The Ukrainian Parliament has passed the 2009 budget on Friday, December 26, 2008. The bill was supported by 226 MPs, exactly the number needed to pass the budget.

Late Christmas day State Statistics Committee of Ukraine announced that the average salary in Ukraine fell 4.9% MoM and the volume of delayed wages grew by 66.4%.

Ukraine’s Parliament has failed to pass the 2009 draft budget proposed by the government. The draft budget proposed expenses of UAH 265.6 bln (USD 34.1 bln) and profits of UAH 237.5 bln (USD 30.5 bln). The project was supported by 223 MPs while 226 votes were needed for this bill to pass.

The Ukrainian Parliament has passed a bill that temporarily imposes an additional 13% tariff on all imports except critical imports (to be defined by the government). The bill was supported by 269 MPs from the governing coalition and Communist Party.

The gross external debt grew 42.0% or USD 31.2 bln between October 2007 and October 2009 and reached USD 105.4 bln.

The CA deficit in Ukraine shrunk in 3Q08 to USD 1.6 bln; a 47.5% decrease compared to the CA deficit in 2Q08 of USD 3.0 bln. The trade balance deficit has contracted to USD 2.1 bln, compared to USD 3.6 bln in 2Q08. The financial account surplus was not altered substantially, staying around USD 2.3 bln. Foreign direct investment fell to USD 3.4 bln, compared to USD 3.8 bln last quarter.

Ukraine’s real GDP fell 14.4% YoY in November after a 2.1% contraction in October. Therefore, the GDP YoY growth in January-November 2008 reached 3.6%, compared to the 5.8% growth seen in January-October 2008.

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.

The largest Ukrainian pipe producing group, Interpipe, has announced that it offers to repurchase USD 200 mln in Eurobonds with an indicative repurchase price of USD 47-55 corresponding to the 67-53% YTM level.