KIEV, July 5 – Over UAH 1 billion will be required for the holding of the next local elections, which are scheduled for Oct. 31, said Andriy Mahera, deputy chairman of the Central Election Commission.

"I do not want to frighten you, but these will be significant expenditures. These expenditures could total more than UAH 1 billion," he said at a press conference on Monday.

KIEV, July 5 – Ukraine exported a preliminary 21 million tons of grain in the previous marketing year (July 2009- June 2010), according to Volodymyr Klymenko, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association.

KIEV, July 6 – Fitch Ratings has upgraded Ukraine's sovereign Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings to 'B' from 'B-'.

The Outlooks on the Long-term IDRs are stable. At the same time, the agency affirmed Ukraine's short-term foreign currency IDR at 'B' and upgraded the Country Ceiling to 'B' from 'B-'.

KIEV, July 7 – The main task of Ukrainian aviation industry should be development of mass aircraft production, First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Kliuyev said at a meeting on aviation industry development in Kiev on Tuesday.

KIEV, July 7 - Natural gas transit through Ukraine to Europe and the CIS in January-June 2010 amounted to 50.982 billion cubic meters (bcm), which is 30.5% (or 11.903 bcm) up on 2009, Ukrtransgaz, a subsidiary of Naftogaz Ukrayiny, has reported.

KIEV, July 7 - Ukraine seeks to raise $6.5 billion over the next nine years to finance modernization of its natural gas transportation system, the Energy and Fuel Ministry reported Wednesday.

KIEV, July 7 – Ukraine will probably reduce exports of grain to 17 million tons of grain over the next 12 months, down from 24.7 million metric tons, due to lower output, a senior official said.

"Ukrainian farmers will be able to supply 17 million tons of [grain] to the foreign markets,” Anatoliy Rozgon, the head of market development department at the Agriculture Ministry, said in a statement. “This is an approximate figure."

MOSCOW, July 7 – Naftogaz Ukrayiny quadrupled daily natural gas imports from Russia in July after successfully making the payment for gas imports in June, a spokesman for Gazprom said Wednesday.

KIEV, July 7 - Ukraine’s consumer inflation, already the highest in Europe, rose faster-than-expected in June amid rocketing utility and transportation costs, figures released by the government on Tuesday indicate.

KIEV, July 6 - Moody's Investors Service updated its rating on Kiev-based Khreschatyk Bank's bank financial strength rating (BFSR) to E+, which corresponds to a basic credit assessment of B2, the bank reported.

As the bank said in the press release, Khreschatyk's rating reflects its stable corporate client base and sufficiently developed network.