DNIPROPETROVSK, Oct. 27 – Victor Pinchuk, owner of the Interpipe Pipe and Wheel Company, has expressed hope that the agreement on a free trade zone with the CIS signed by the government will boost pipe and wheel supplies to the Customs Union's markets – Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

KIEV, Oct. 27 – The All-Ukrainian Association of Automobile Importers and Dealers is initiating an increase in the period of storage of automobiles in bonded warehouses without customs clearance from three to 12 months, Director General Oleh Nazarenko announced.

KIEV, Oct. 26 – The placement by the government of eurobonds worth $2 billion in September has ensured a surplus of Ukraine's consolidated balance of payments in September of $1.241 billion, while Ukraine saw a $30 million surplus in August, the National Bank of Ukraine reported.

KIEV, Oct. 27 – Ukrtransgaz, a subsidiary of Naftogaz Ukrainy, announced it has finished pumping gas to Ukraine's underground gas storage facilities.

KIEV, Oct. 27 – The bill on the increase of social standards adopted by Parliament last week is a political step and is not an economically justifiable program on the increase of welfare in Ukraine, according to Andriy Nesteruk, senior analyst from Phoenix Capital.

"With the increase of social standards, the public's welfare will not actually grow, and only inflation and unemployment rates will increase.

KIEV, Oct. 27 – The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine said it is against attempts by the International Monetary Fund and other international financial establishments to use the process of granting long-term crediting of Ukraine to break down the current national system of social protections for the population.

KIEV, Oct. 26 – Ukraine plans to empower the State Customs Services to arrest foreign currency if there is suspicion of money laundering, the state committee for financial monitoring reported.

"One of the first measures to be taken in Q1, 2010 is granting permission to arrest foreign currency carried across the border to officers of the State Customs Services," reads a press release of the committee.

KIEV, Oct. 27 - Actual year-on-year wages in Ukraine fell in September by 11%, while in September 2008 they grew by 7.1% year-over-year, the State Statistics Committee reported.

According to the committee, the average nominal wage in September grew by 2.5% from September 2008 and by 2.3% from August 2009, to UAH 1,964.

KIEV, Oct. 27 ??“ Ukrainian metal traders expect the price of metal products sold by Kryvorizhstal steel mill in Dnipropetrovsk region will grow by 20% on average, or by $100 per ton, now that it is incorporated into the world's biggest steel company Mittal Steel.

KIEV, Oct. 27 - IDS Group, Ukraine's biggest producer of mineral water, has begun the construction of a new mineral water bottling workshop at the company's Oscar Mineral Water Plant in Morshyn.