Daily monitor

According to Metal Courier, CJSC YuTiST, a small Ukrainian pipes and tubes producer, is going to report going into sanation on December 27.

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.

According to various press reports, the Midland Group, which controls about 48% of Zaporizhstal [ZPST UZ, U/R], intends to split.

The National Commission for Regulation Communications has developed draft amendments to the conditions for the licensing of mobile services, according to the newspaper “Economic News”. The draft proposes the introduction of certain changes in the dates operators must begin immediately providing telecommunications services and networks covering a specific territory.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has increased the reserve requirements for foreign currency deposits as of January,5, with this change being outlined in resolution #442. The norm of the reserve has increased from 3% to 4% for deposits with a fixed period and from 4% to 7% for callable deposits. The norm of the reserve for UAH deposits was not changed.

The Bogdan Corporation has announced that it is, so far, not ruling out the possibility that the company may have to lay off 2,000 of the 10,000 personnel presently employed at its enterprises over the period of January-March 2009.

The Zaporizhya-based Motor Sich [MSICH UZ, BUY] company – the largest producer of aviation jets and gas-turbine units in the CIS – has announced its intention to deliver helicopter engines worth USD 12-13 mln to Canada. This announcement was made by Vyacheslav Bohuslaev, the Chairman of MSICH’s Board of Directors in an interview with the “Delo” newspaper.

The Ukrainian Parliament has endorsed legislation on increasing the excise tax on beer by a total of 58.1% in 2009. The increase will be implemented in two steps. Beginning January 1, 2009, the excise tax will be increased to USD 0.05 (UAH 0.39) and then subsequently, in July 2009, will finally be raised to USD 0.065 (UAH 0.49).

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.