Tag: Ukrainian Economy
After Default to Putin, What’s Next for Ukraine-Russia Bond Row
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff and Marton Eder – December 20, 2015) A two-year feud between Ukraine and Russia is on the verge of being played out in a London courtroom after the government in Kiev defaulted on $3 billion in bonds. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko followed through on months of threats on Friday by reneging on the debt […]
» Read moreIMF Says Ukraine Bond Owned by Russia Is Official Sovereign Debt
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Andrew Mayeda – December 17, 2015) The International Monetary Fund’s executive board ruled that a bond sold by Ukraine to Russia should be considered official sovereign debt, putting pressure on Ukrainian officials to start restructuring talks with their Russian counterparts. Russia bought a $3 billion bond from the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in […]
» Read moreMedvedev: Russia is capable of surviving recession without aid
In his annual interview to five of the country’s leading television channels on Dec. 9, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tackled topics ranging from the economy to defense, corruption, Crimea, and Ukraine’s $3 billion debt. RBTH presents a selection of highlights from the interview. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Igor Rozin – December 9, 2015) On economics “The […]
» Read moreWill Crimea’s ‘energy bridge’ save it from dependency on Ukraine?
Electricity in Crimea has been partially restored: On Dec. 2 an underwater cable linked the peninsula’s electricity system with a Russian electrical grid. RBTH finds out why the Russian authorities were unprepared for the peninsula’s electricity being cut off by Ukrainian activists and asks whether the energy bridge will save Crimean residents from other infrastructure failures in the future. (Russia […]
» Read moreUkrainian government must take important political decisions in view of its obligations to IMF – U.S. Vice President Biden
KYIV. Dec 7 (Interfax) – The United States Vice President Joseph Biden has stressed the need for Ukraine to make important political decisions in the context of its obligations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The parties talked about the very important implementation of Ukraine’s obligations to the IMF with the aim to continue the assistance, Biden said at a […]
» Read moreLavrov: U.S. admits lack of prospects of restoring Ukrainian solvency
(Interfax – November 7, 2015) By having refused to guarantee Ukraine’s debt as part of Russia’s proposal to restructure it, the United States effectively admitted the absence of prospects of restoring its solvency, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Interfax. “We were ready to restructure Ukraine’s $3 billion debt at much more advantageous terms than those […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Reuters: “Grim reality sets in for Ukraine wheat crop”
Reuters covers Ukrainian agricultural production following some unfavorable weather conditions earlier in the year. Ukraine’s 2016 wheat crop is … sailing into uncharted waters given both the significantly missed planting target and a record percentage of crops in poor condition. … the world’s sixth-largest wheat exporter[] has faced one of the most challenging winter planting campaigns this year than ever […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Atlantic Council/Anders Aslund: “Ukraine Two Years After Euromaidan: What Has Been Accomplished?”
Anders Aslund assesses developments in Ukraine since Euromaidan. Two years ago, popular protests erupted against Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych on Kyiv’s Maidan. Since then, Ukraine’s economy has deteriorated sharply, with a contraction of 18 percent in two years, but the Poroshenko Bloc was the biggest party by far in the October 25 local elections. One might say that the […]
» Read moreRussia Pushes IMF for Response, Won’t Send Debt Offer to Ukraine
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Olga Tanas – November 20, 2015) Russia, which has previously refused to negotiate with Ukraine over restructuring its $3 billion Eurobond, is waiting for the International Monetary Fund to respond to its proposal to change the terms on the debt and expects the cash-strapped country to initiate new talks if it’s unable to pay in full […]
» Read moreUkraine Rebuffs Putin’s Offer to Restructure Russian Debt
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 20, 2015) Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has rejected Russia’s restructuring proposal for the repayment of Kiev’s eurobond debt, and said the “aggressor state” should accept the same terms as other bondholders. The “basic conditions” that must be included in any debt restructuring plan include a 20 percent reduction on the face value of […]
» Read moreAll creditors bar Moscow back Ukraine debt restructuring
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – bne IntelliNews – October 15, 2015) Private creditors have voted in favour of Ukraine’s $18bn debt restructuring deal, while Russia – which holds a $3bn bond due in December – refused to vote, Kyiv’s Finance Ministry said in a statement published on October 15. “The ministry is pleased to announce that all sovereign and […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Kyiv Post: Oligarchy needs to be dismantled to rebuild economy, public trust in business, experts say
Ukraine ‘breadbasket’ prepares for its next heyday
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Benjamin Rahr in London – October 7, 2015) Despite Ukraine’s 18-month old civil war and the loss of territories in the east of the country, it has impressively maintained its status as one of the world’s leading exporters of agricultural products. Now the pro-European government in Kyiv hopes that its agribusiness, bolstered by a […]
» Read moreUkraine Sees IMF Bailout Continuing Even With Russia Bond Unpaid
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff, Lyubov Pronina – October 5, 2015) Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said she’s optimistic the International Monetary Fund will continue its aid program even if the war-torn nation breaches the lender’s policy by going into arrears on payment of a $3 billion bond owed to Russia. Support from the Group of Seven industrialized nations […]
» Read moreUkraine’s seamy coal trade learns to vault the frontlines
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – September 25, 2015) Ukraine “should provide for transparency in coal purchases in the anti-terrorist zone [rebel-territories in East Ukraine] and abroad,” US ambassador to Kyiv Geoffrey Pyatt has warned amid growing attention to the shadowy lucrative trading that continues across the front line of the armed conflict. Pyatt, quoted […]
» Read moreSaakashvili for Prime Minister of Ukraine?
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Marc Champion – September 23, 2015) After 24 years of independence and two revolutions, the promise of reforms that would turn Ukraine from a kleptocracy enabled by Soviet-era institutions into, say, Poland still hasn’t materialized. Popular patience is wearing thin. So three months ago, President Petro Poroshenko sent his friend (and Russia’s bete noire) Mikheil Saakashvili […]
» Read moreRussia refuses to accept ‘restructuring’ of Ukrainian debt
The Kremlin is refusing to accept proposals by Kiev to restructure $3 billion worth of bonds and demands full payment on the debt. Experts point out that this is an economic as well as a political issue and it could become a bargaining chip in the ongoing negotiations over a bilateral gas deal. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – […]
» Read moreUkraine Bond Deal at Risk Again as Rebel Investors Demand Change
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff, Marton Eder – September 17, 2015) A group of investors in Ukraine’s shortest-dated bonds stepped up pressure on Franklin Templeton to adjust the terms of an $18 billion restructuring agreement they argue is biased against them, saying they have the power to block the deal. Holders of the $500 million Eurobond due on Sept. […]
» Read moreUkraine Lobbies Lawmakers With Debt Vote Said at Risk of Failing
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff, Daryna Krasnolutska – September 16, 2015) Ukraine’s government has stepped up last-minute lobbying because of growing concern that lawmakers won’t back an accord to restructure $18 billion of foreign debt. Government officials have met with ruling and opposition parties before a vote Thursday that’s supposed to give final approval to the debt deal, according […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Kyiv Post: Saakashvili says Ukraine run by ‘shadow” oligarchic government
NEWSLINK Washington Post/Lawrence Summers: “Why Ukraine’s debt deal is important not just for Ukraine, but for the West”
NEWSLINK Financial Times: “Ukraine: Costs of conflict. A debt deal agreed with the IMF and creditors averted default but the war-torn country’s worries are far from over.”
Odds grow for Ukrainian default on $3 billion Russia debt
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – bne IntelliNews – August 28, 2015) Despite an initial surge of optimism about Ukraine’s financial health after it appeared to clinch a crucial restructuring deal with private creditors, the country is increasingly expected to default on a $3bn Russian-held Eurobond due for redemption in December 2015. The likelihood of the scenario grew after the […]
» Read moreUkraine not out of the woods yet
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – KYIV BLOG: Ben Aris in Moscow – August 28, 2015) The $3.6bn debt deal announced on August 27 by Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance, where private bondholders agreed to take a 20% writedown on the face value of $18bn in government debt, is very good news. Yet it’s not a done deal and the final […]
» Read moreAll You Need to Know About Ukraine’s $18 Billion Debt Agreement
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Natasha Doff – August 27, 2015) Ukraine reached a bond-restructuring agreement with about half of its private-sector creditors on Thursday after five months of negotiations. Below are the details of the terms of the agreement and what happens next. Which bonds are included? The deal covers $18 billion of Ukraine’s foreign debt, including 11 government Eurobonds […]
» Read moreUkraine Is Too Corrupt for Debt Deal to Work
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – August 25, 2015) Ukraine is reportedly close to a deal with its private creditors, who may accept a 20 percent haircut. This is an uneasy compromise that would solve little, because the government continues to fail where it really matters: cutting corruption and bringing the country’s huge shadow economy into the tax system. […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Foreign Policy Magazine/ Taras Kuzio: Money Still Rules Ukraine. President Poroshenko talks big about reform – but he’s missing what may be his only chance to break the power of the oligarchs.
Ukraine’s largest lender PrivatBank investigated for diverting $1.8bn of IMF funds
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – August 24, 2015) PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest lender partly owned by controversial oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, is under criminal investigation by the authorities for fraudulently diverting around what was then about $1.8bn, the bank has confirmed. “We are aware of the existence of criminal proceedings. PrivatBank fully cooperates with the investigators […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Interfax-Ukraine: Ukrainian shadow economy reaches 47% of GDP in Q1, 2015 – Economy Ministry.
Interfax-Ukraine covers a report indicating a rise in Ukraine’s “shadow economy,” corresponding an overall drop in Ukrainian economic output. … the shadow economy in Ukraine in the first quarter … 2015 increased … 5 percentage points compared to the corresponding period in 2014, to 47% of official GDP, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry has reported …. * * * […]
» Read moreNo Quick Fix for Ukraine With Limp Revival Next After Recession
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Agnes Lovasz – July 29, 2015) Ukrainians hoping the trough in their 1 1/2-year economic slump will usher in a rousing recovery are likely to be disappointed. The foreign demand that powered growth after the last recession in 2009 is largely absent. At home, a war with pro-Russian separatists has decimated industry, ravaged government finances and […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH AFP: IMF: Ukraine economic picture ‘incredibly encouraging’
AFP reports on the IMF’s ongoing assessment of Ukrainian political and economic trends. Ukraine’s government is determined to undertake long-needed reforms, making the economic picture in the country very encouraging, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Wednesday. * * * ‘Ukraine has been an incredibly encouraging situation,’ she said * * * Lagarde emphasized the gains that are being made, […]
» Read moreUkraine is ripe for the shock doctrine; Like many states in crisis before it, Ukraine serves as a perfect opportunity for neoliberal transformation.
(opendemocracy.net – Sean Guillory – July 27, 2015) Sean Guillory is a UCIS/REES postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. He hosts the podcast New Books in Russian and Eurasian Studies and received his PhD in History at UCLA. Follow him on Twitter @seansrussiablog While a crisis of faith, of sorts, has resounded in western discourse on the economic effectiveness […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Reuters: Ukraine puts new debt restructuring proposals to creditors – minister
Reuters covers the restructuring of Ukrainian debt. Heavily indebted Ukraine has made new proposals to its creditors for restructuring $23 billion of foreign debt and is now awaiting their response …. *** The IMF has brought relief to Ukraine by saying it will disburse $1.7 billion in fresh funds under a $17.5 bailout package irrespective of a restructuring deal being […]
» Read moreUkrainian PM expects more substantial financial aid from West
KYIV. July 27 (Interfax) – Ukraine does not receive appropriate financial aid from Western countries, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. “We are grateful for the existing level of support but it is necessary to admit that we are awfully underfinanced,” Yatsenyuk said during a board meeting of the Finance Ministry in Kyiv on Monday. According to the prime minister, […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Wall Street Journal/Stephen Hadley, Robert Zoellick: Crucial Weapons in the Defense of Ukraine. Without debt reduction and more aid, a young democracy could vanish.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Stephen Hadley and Robert Zoellick address the issue of Western assistance for Ukraine amidst the Russo-Ukrainian War, including financial and debt-related assistance. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is an assault on the vision that emerged from the end of the Cold War of a Europe whole, free and at peace. For that vision to be realized, the […]
» Read moreBNE: Number of Ukrainians in food poverty increases sixfold in two years
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Henry Kirby in London – July 14, 2015) The number of Ukrainians who consider themselves to be in food poverty has increased sixfold in the last two years, according to a study by international polling firm TNS Global. The survey asked 5,000 Ukrainians if they considered themselves wealthy enough to buy certain goods, ranging […]
» Read moreBlack cash still oils Ukrainian politics
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – KYIV BLOG: Graham Stack in Kyiv – July 17, 2015) In his first interview since being fired as head of Ukraine’s state security service on June 16, Valentyn Nalivaichenko alleged that Ukraine’s leading political parties are behind huge flows of secret funds moving to and fro from offshore jurisdictions. He is only the highest […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK AFP: Ukraine offers huge state firms to foreign investors
BNE: Parliamentary populism embarrasses Ukrainian government
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – KYIV BLOG: Sergei Kuznetsov in Kyiv – July 8, 2015) Ukraine’s parliament has sent a series of worrying signals to the country’s Western backers: it has approved a populist law that could cost Ukraine’s banks up to $4.65bn; at the same time, parliament has failed to adopt a package of bills that are meant […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Financial Times/Taras Kuzio: Ukraine’s citizens have defeated Putin’s “New Russia” – now Poroshenko must defeat Ukraine’s oligarchs
NEWSLINK Wall Street Journal: Ukraine Looks to Privatization to Counter Budget Woes. Government searches for buyers for moribund state enterprises, such as an old silk farm in Shovkove
Ukraine’s default ducks are all in a row
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – June 30, 2015) Ukraine has lined up all the ducks it needs to successfully default on its privately held bonds. Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko indicated she wanted to meet with both the IMF and the ad hoc committee of private creditors in Washington before or on June 30. […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Kyiv Post: Soviet social guarantees for employees scare away investors, often backfire
The Kyiv Post and Olena Gordiienko comment on Ukrainian labor law and its impact on real world labor practices, business and investment. Ukrainian labor legislation is paternalistic and focuses excessively on employee rights, many lawyers and employers say … it also leads to unintended consequences. Ukrainians earn less than any other nation in Europe, $180 per month on average. Unemployment rose from 7.3 […]
» Read moreIMF Staff Said to View Ukraine Russia Bond as Official Debt
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Elena Popina, Marton Eder – June 23, 2015) International Monetary Fund staff formed a preliminary view that $3 billion in bonds sold to Russia by Ukraine should be classified as official rather than private debt, according to a person familiar with the matter. Treating the bonds as state aid, as Russia has sought, would exclude them […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK AFP: Ukraine creditors reject ‘haircut’ despite default threat
Ukraine’s biggest private creditors mounted a firm defence Wednesday of their refusal to accept a debt write-off that could keep the impoverished but strategic ex-Soviet nation from slipping into default.
» Read moreNEWSLINK The National Interest/Rajan Menon: Newsflash, America: Ukraine Cannot Afford a War with Russia
Arming Ukraine would only fan the flames of tension between the West and Russia, leading the United States into a conflict it doesn’t, and shouldn’t, want.
» Read moreWhat will happen if Ukraine defaults?
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Berlin – June 12, 2015) With Ukraine edging closer to the world’s first unilateral sovereign default since Argentina’s in 2001, analysts are grappling with the question of how this might impact on the ex-Soviet republic as its strives for deeper integration with the EU and the West. Ukrainian default on $23bn […]
» Read moreWar-Weary Ukraine Shutters Cash-Starved Banks as Trust Falls
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Volodymyr Verbyany, Andras Gergely – June 12, 2015) When Vasyl Klos plunked $9,000 into a bank branch in his hometown of Lviv, Ukraine, in 2013, he assumed it was safe because it was German owned. He was wrong. Bank Forum JSC had already been sold by Commerzbank AG to Ukrainian businessman Vadim Novinsky, a fact Klos […]
» Read moreBlow to Ukraine hopes for agriculture as farmland sale moratorium seen extended
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Berlin – June 12, 2015) As Ukraine edges closer to default, analysts see fallout for the country from bad to mild. One of Ukraine’s key reforms in the path to transform itself from post-Soviet basket case to Europe’s breadbasket is to create a market in farmland. But vested interests mean the […]
» Read more