Business World

In January-March consumer loans were provided most actively by the state-owned banks and banks with private Ukrainian capital, the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported. "Consumer lending remains high - for the first quarter the volume of lending portfolio to individuals increased by 5.6%, to UAH 83.8 billion, or by more than 37% YoY. In January-March...

The state-owned company Ukrspecexport, a part of the State Concern Ukroboronprom and Ukraine's main exporter of all types of weapons and military equipment, increased its net profit by 69% YoY in January-March, to UAH 64.34 million ($2.4 million) from UAH 38 million ($1.4 million). Net revenue from sales of products in Q1 stood at UAH 364.1 million ($13.8 million), up...

Mogilev companies are planning to branch out into the Japanese meat and dairy market. Relevant contracts may be concluded at the first Belarusian-Japanese economic forum in Japan on May 9-11, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Japan Ruslan Yesin announced. "The forthcoming forum will include meetings between Mogilev meat and dairy producers and Japanese enterprises to discuss possible delivery...

According to information released by Statistics Estonia on May 8, the consumer price index (CPI) in April increased by 0.4% MoM and by 2.9% YoY. Compared to April 2017 goods were 3.2% and services 2.4% more expensive. Regulated prices of goods and services have risen by 7.6% and non-regulated prices by 1.6% compared to last April. Compared to April 2017 the...

A new composition of asphalt is for the first time used in Bishkek for repair of roads, the head of the Capital Construction Department Nurlan Eshenbaev reported. "The difficulty is that our manufacturers have no experience in it. The components are slightly different. This causes a delay in repairing the streets," he said. "The use of the asphalt was initiated by...

In April Ukrainian producers delivered 41,800 tons of sugar to foreign markets, down by 12% MoM (47,200 tons in March), the press service of the Ukrtsukor National Association of Sugar Producers of Ukraine reported. "Although the pace of shipments slightly decreased, the geography of exports has not changed. Most shipments were made to Uzbekistan - 55%," Ukrtsukor Analytical Department Director...

Ukrainian agricultural producers reported that the planted areas under buckwheat would reduce, due to expansion of the areas under late spring crops, including corn and sunflower seed. At the same time, the situation developed due to some decline of prices for the crop. According to agrarians, to date the average bid price for buckwheat totals 7000 UAH/ton, down almost 2-fold...

Belarus' gold and foreign exchange reserves exceeded $7 billion as of May 1, the Information and PR Department of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) reported. According to the preliminary data, Belarus' gold and foreign exchange reserves, if calculated in accordance with methods of the International Monetary Fund, totaled $7.038 billion (in equivalent) as of May 1. In...

Kapital Bank will have launched its first virtual branch by the end of this year, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of the Bank Nahid Zeynalov said at the presentation. According to Zeynalov, today Kapital Bank is the largest in the country by number of branches. The bank has over 100 branches and offices in Azerbaijan, and its customer base...

Passenger traffic in the two Armenian airports grew by 10.4% YoY in January-April, the general department of civil aviation reveals. Overall, 737,861 people used the services of Zvartnots airport in the capital city, Yerevan, and Shirak airport in the northern city of Gyumri. In April alone 212,782 people used the services of the two Armenian airports. U.S.-made Robinson R66 and France-made Airbus...