Economy and politics

On Wednesday, September 17, 2008 The Parliament accepted a law regulating the activity of joint stock companies.

The President of Ukraine’s Secretariat announced its 2009 forecast for inflation at the 14% level in 2009.

Tuesday, September 16 was the last day for the Parliament’s Nasha Ukrayina-Narodna Samooborona (NUNS) pro-presidential faction to recall their decision to exit the Parliamentary coalition.

The Head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Council, Mr. Petro Poroshenko, announced that the Council expects the USD/UAH exchange rate to stay within a 5% corridor around the current official exchange rate, 4.85 UAH per USD.

The State Statistics Committee of Ukraine has announced that real GDP in January-July 2008 grew 7.1% YoY. At the same time, real GDP in August 2008 grew 10.9% YoY.

Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers submitted Parliament the budget for 2009, which assumes UAH 285 bln (USD 58.8 bln) in profits and expenditures of UAH 302.4 bln (USD 62.4 bln).

The State Statistics Committee of Ukraine has released figures on real industrial output growth in August 2008. Real output in August 2008 fell 5.3% MoM (vs. a 1.9% decline in July 2008) and fell 0.5% YoY (vs. 5.1% growth in July 2008).

According to the State Statistics Committee, in July 2008 Ukraine exported 1.77 mln tons of grain, totaling USD 481.9 bln.

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers announced forecasted figures for GDP, inflation, unemployment and the budget for 2009.

According to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, the incomes of Ukrainians grew 4.7% MoM in July.