This is a curated list of the biggest news from the Ukrainian economical sphere this week.
The bear in the room. It is hard to pretend that everything is as usual i Ukraine right now. Today, on Twitter, one of the trending hashtags was #anxiety. It sums up pretty much how the hold world is looking at Russia and Ukraine right now. It seems everyone are more or less convinced that Russia will strike Ukraine with a quick and forceful winter war early next year.
This is the dominant news story right now. Not just in Ukrainian media, but in international media as well, the freezing relationship between Ukraine and Russia has been highlighted with some saying that it is the most dangerous situation the country has been in since 2016. Some even argue, that the country is in as much danger as in 2014. The preliminary attack plan theories involves a Russian offensive going all the way to the Dnepr River.
This plan would includes an attack on Kyiv and everything east of the river which could heavily influence both current and future business activities involving Central and Eastern Ukraine, which is why it is impossible to ignore as news site focusing on the Ukrainian business environment. Read more about the situation here.
A new contender
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy seems to have created a big obstacle for himself, when the Servant of the People Party ousted former Chairma of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov in October. We have tried to write up the events that led to this – a story about former allies turning on each other.
IMF loan is back on track
Sadly overshadowed by the recent events in Western Russia, the relationship between Ukraine and IMF seems to have been stabilised after over a year of unhappy back and forth. IMF agreed to continue payments under the 18-month Stand-By Arrangement, signed in June 2020, and it is a big deal.
For more than a year, IMF has halted payments due to concerns over the independence of the National Bank of Ukraine and the lack of progress in reforms in Ukraine. However, after a recent review, the IMF has decided to provide Ukraine with $699 million of the total $5 billion loans.
EU also have plans to invest massively in Ukraine. The EU is ready to invest up to seven billion euros in Ukraine over the next seven years, The Deputy for the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Katarina Maternova, said that the money would mainly go to digital transition and infrastructure upgrades.
“We will focus more on investing; we have a new investment support instrument – the de-risk instrument – a guarantee from the European Commission to our international financial institutions-partners to reduce risks for investments in our partner countries, including Ukraine: Our President has announced that we hope to mobilize up to EUR7 billion for investments in Ukraine for seven years,” Maternova said.
Ukraine jumps up the prosperity index
This year’s Prosperity Index, raking the prosperity of all countries around the world, is published and reveals that Ukraine is doing better than ever. In the index, Ukraine takes a spot as 78th most prosperous country in the world and it is in the best position since 2007 when the first Prosperity Index was published.
Furthermore, Ukraine has jumped 13 places this year, which makes Ukraine the biggest climber on the list. The Prosperity Index evaluates countries in categories such as Inclusive Societies, Open Economics, and Empowered People.
Great Construction on the road
The Ukrainian President’s ‘Big Construction’ program is moving forward with its aim of renovating and building more than 557 kilometers of roads in just two years.Since the ‘Big Construction’ program started lack year, several roads have been built or upgraded around Ukraine, and Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov recently revealed the next stages of the plans for the infrastructure.
The investment nanny
Ukraine is working on several different projects to attract foreign investors, and one is the so-called investment nanny. Everyone investing more than 20 million euros and creating more than 80 workplaces is entitled to a “nanny” and tax benefits, and the program is starting to attract interests from abroad.
Epravda writes that Ukraineinvest has received 27 project applications so far from investors for a total of more than $2 billion. Ten of them are foreign investors.
The world championship is coming to Kyiv
The world’s best cheese will be selected in Kyiv next year. It might not be the most prominent world championship, but it still counts. The city has been chosen to host the World Cheese Awards 2022, which is kind of the world championship in cheese-making. That was confirmed recently by the Ardis Group, which is in charge of hosting the yearly event.
4.079 participants and 45 kinds of cheese participated in the event in 2021, where a soft goat’s cheese from Spain won. The event always attracts worldwide attention. The hope is that the event will put Ukraine on the map for its cheesemaking.
