KIEV, July 20 – The share of bad loans in the overall amount of loans provided by Ukrainian banks to their clients in June 2009 grew by 0.5 percentage notches, to 5.4% by July 1, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.

KIEV, July 20 – The potential of the National Bank of Ukraine to support the economy is being curbed by the low lending activity of some banks, the NBU said in a letter to banks.

"The significant level of liquidity amid the insufficiently active use of free funds by some banks is limiting the NBU's ability to support the liquidity of those banks which actively work on the market and which are [aiding] the renewal of economic growth," reads the letter.

KIEV, July 20 – Naftogaz Ukrayiny said it is alarmed by the repeated attempts of some officials in Ukraine and the European Union to give one-sided and biased evaluation of the holding's activities in the mass media.

KIEV, July 21 - Creativ Group (Kirovohrad), one of the largest vegetable oil producers in Ukraine, jointly with its Russian partners has built a soybean plant in Kirovohrad worth around $39 million, investing some $20 million in it and receiving a 51% stake in the plant.

KIEV, July 21 – The talks on the creation of a free-trade zone between Ukraine and the European Union should be based on the rules of the World Trade Organization, officials from the sides in the talks said at a meeting in Brussels on July 17, according to a posting on the official Web site of the Ukrainian state.

KIEV, July 18 – France's Rasec Group, one of Europe's largest trade and office equipment producers, will launch its own production operation at the premises of the bankrupt Cherkasy Khimvolokno, according to the Cherkasy regional state administration.

KIEV, July 21 – Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry has proposed to allocate a UAH818 million loan to the Agrarian Fund to buy grain from the new harvest to form the state foodstuffs reserve.

KIEV, July 21 – The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, could give a $45 million credit to Delta-Wilmar CIS to expand its production facilities and develop infrastructure at a palm oil refinery at the Yuzhny port in Odesa, IFC reported on Friday.

KIEV, July 21 – Representatives of Ukraine and the European Commission are reportedly trying to iron out a dispute involving bilateral trade.

On July 17, the deputy head of the presidential secretariat of Ukraine, Andriy Honcharuk, held a working meeting with the director of Trade Defense Instruments Directorate at the European Commission, Stefaan Depypere, where problematic issues in the trade the defense instruments sphere were discussed, the presidential press service reported.

KIEV, July 20 - The Image Holding company, a large Ukrainian alcohol producer (maker of the Khortysia vodka brand), plans by 2010 to launch a new distillery with a capacity of 1 million decaliters per month in Russia.