MOSCOW, March 24 - The optimal starting price for a 67.79% stake in national operator Ukrtelecom that is to be offered in a privatization tender would be UAH 25 billion ($3.2 billion), Transport and Communications Minister Yosyp Vinsky told Interfax.

KIEV, March 21 – Ukraine will suspend sunflower oil exports effective March 22 due to the sunflower oil exports quotas imposed by the government, according to Ukroliyaprom Association Director General Stepan Kapshuk.

KIEV, March 21 – The cabinet has included 60%+1 share stakes in heat generating companies Dniproenergo, Donbasenergo, Zakhidenergo and Tsentrenergo in the list of companies subject to the privatization in 2008, and instructed to transfer them to the State Property Fund.

KIEV, March 24 – Rates on the Ukrainian interbank credit market in the near future could fall slightly, although as a whole, they will remain high, according to the majority of bankers polled by Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, March 24 – The international credit crisis has made it more difficult for Ukrainian banks with national capital to access financial resources on foreign markets, and gives considerable advantages to banks operating in Ukraine with foreign capital, according to Petro Poroshenko, head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Council.

KIEV, March 24 - Ukraine’s crude oil and gas condensate output dropped 4.7% year-on-year to 713,700 metric tons in January-February, down from 749,000 tons extracted one year ago, the energy and fuel ministry reported Monday.

KIEV, March 24 – The Ukrainian government should review its inflation forecast for 2008 at the end of Q1 to make it more realistic, according to Petro Poroshenko, head of the National Bank of Ukraine Council.

KIEV, March 23 ??“ Amendments to the 2005 state budget proposed by the government and a number of laws that foresee cancellation of tax preferences for domestic car producers will result in a 25%-30% rise in prices for domestically-manufactured cars and a 65%-70% reduction in output volumes, industry executives told government officials.

KIEV, March 24 ??“ The post-privatization performance of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Works (Dnipropetrovsk region) is satisfactory, the State Property Fund reported, according to a company announcement carried by Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, March 24 ??“ UkrSibbank has signed a mandate agreement with Switzerland??™s UBS and Germany??™s Deutsche Bank to organize a three-year issue of $100 million to $200 million of Eurobonds yielding up to 9%, UkrSibbank Governor Oleksandr Adarych announced.