KIEV, April 4 – Poland plans to ensure there are the proper conditions for Ukraine to complete the talks on the creation of a free trade zone with the European Union by the end of the current year, MEP Pawel Zalewski said.

KIEV, April 6 - International rating agency Standard & Poor's is maintaining its current GDP growth forecast in Ukraine in 2011 at 4%, but it expects the dynamics of economic development in Ukraine in 2012 will rise to 4.5%.

KIEV, April 5 - Ukraine’s exports of steel pipe in February increased by 41.5% on the month to 85,330 metric tons from 60,300 mt in January, but down from 115,770 mt exported in February 2009, the State Statistics Committee reported.

KIEV, April 5 - Ukrainian oil refinery Lukoil-Odessa, owned by Russian oil major Lukoil, has started resuming its operation after scheduled maintenance, a company official said.

KIEV, April 6 – EnergoAtom, Ukraine’s biggest power producer, increased power output by 17.1% on the month to 7.99 TWh in March, up from 6.82 TWh in February and up from 7.59 TWh produced in March 2009, the company press service said Tuesday.

KIEV, April 6 - Ukraine's biggest egg producer, Avangard, is planning a stock-market float in London, the first firm from the Commonwealth of Independent States to announce a capital raising in the UK this year, Reuters reported.

KIEV, April 6 - Ukraine’s biggest producer of large-diameter steel pipes used for oil and natural gas pipelines, Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant, increased pipe output to 11,893 metric tons in March from 353 mt produced in February, the company reported Tuesday.

KIEV, April 3 - Fitch Ratings has downgraded Ukrainian-based steel producer Corporation Industrial Union of Donbass's (IUD) Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'B-' (B minus) from 'B', Fitch said in a statement.

KIEV, April 3 – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to provide OJSC State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine, also known as Ukreximbank, with up to $250 million in a 10-year subordinated loan.

KIEV, April 3 – The further weakening of the hyrvnia would improve the country's balance of payments, strengthen the positions of Ukrainian exporters and allow the resumption of economic growth in Ukraine in Q4, according to Oleksandr Omelchuk, director general of Phoenix Capital investment company.