Week’s balance: economy sees growth, Avdiyivka sees fire, while energy tariffs see opposition from businesses

Oleksandr Kunitskiy

The past week was marked by significant economic news / lifter.com.ua

Electricity supplies to Avdiyivka and the local coke plant have been cut off amidst fierce fighting; Russia’s fearmongering over gas supplies has failed to impress the European Union; Ukrainian economy is growing and budget revenues – increasing, while the National energy regulator once again adopts scandalous decisions - these are major economic news of the past week.

The Ukrainian economy in 2016 showed growth for the first time, at the level of 2%, that’s according to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, although just a week ago the ministry reported a 1.8% growth.

According to the ministry’s experts, in 2016 the key factors of economic growth were the growth in consumer demand and the recovery of the production capacity, services, trade, transport, and especially the construction industry and agriculture, rather than the external environment in the commodity markets.

The experts have already mentioned earlier the fact that agriculture acted as a driver of economic growth in 2016. Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Kutoviy in an interview with UNIAN emphasized the importance of agriexports, which accounted for over 42% of all Ukrainian exports. "Our exports [of agricultural products] in 2016 increased by 4.5%, which is a good rate. This is more than $15 billion in the structure of foreign currency inflows," the minister said. "I believe that the sector performs well. The question is, how much taxes is paid and how many jobs are created. I'd like to see all the records and achievements in the industry transform into good jobs and higher wages for farmers," he added.

By the way, the fact that Ukraine witnesses macroeconomic stabilization, while agriculture is one of the most attractive sectors for investors, is evidenced by another marker - market capitalization of Ukrainian agricultural businesses, whose shares are listed on the international financial markets, as of January 30, 2017, increased by 50% compared to the same date last year, amounting to $3.2 billion. According to analysts, the value of the shares of Kernel, Astarta, and MHP increased most.

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