KIEV, Feb. 21 - Some 9.41 million square meters of housing was commissioned in Ukraine in 2011, 0.8% up on 2010, according to the State Statistics Service.

Last year, 24.1% or 2.267 million square meters of housing was put in operation according to the temporary procedure for commissioning completed private estates and cottages constructed without permits for construction work.

KIEV, Feb. 21 – Ukraine's net international reserves (excluding borrowed funds) by early July 2011 are expected to hit at least $18.611 billion, which is 14.1% or $2.3 billion up on the target for early January 2010, reads a memorandum by the Ukrainian authorities to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dated December 10, 2010 and posted on the IMF's Web site.

MOSCOW, Feb. 21 - Ukraine will pay an average of $280 per thousand cubic meters of gas in 2011, a Gazprom representative told reporters.

The price of gas for Ukraine is $264 this quarter and it will rise to $275 in Q2 2011, said Anatoly Podmyshalsky, head of the Russian gas giant's department for CIS countries.

NEW YORK, Feb. 21 - Oleg Bakhmatyuk, the majority owner of Avangard, Ukraine’s largest producer and exporter of chicken eggs, will spend $24.9 million to acquire a poultry processing business in the United States.

KIEV, Feb. 18 – Ukrainian banks could operate without loss in 2011, according to Association of Ukrainian Banks President Oleksandr Suhoniako.

"Some banks posted loss [in 2010]. I think that in 2011 they would not have losses. I think this year will be a zero balance or a slight surplus [for the whole banking system]," Suhoniako said at a press conference in Kiev.

MOSCOW, Feb. 21 - The shale gas deposits that Ukraine hopes to find and develop won't reduce its reliance on gas from Russia, the head of Gazprom Export LLC's contract structuring and pricing department, Sergei Komlev, said at a roundtable on current problems in the European energy sector.

KIEV, Feb. 21 – Ukraine to plans develop hedging mechanisms and a forward exchange market, reads a memorandum by the Ukrainian authorities to the International Monetary Fund dated December 10, 2010 and posted on the IMF's Web site on February 18.

ASTANA, Feb. 18 - The new route of Kazakh oil transportation through Poland has turned out to be more economic than that through Ukraine, said Kairgeldy Kabyldin, the head of Kazakh National Company KazMunayGas.

KIEV, Feb. 19 – Unpopular reforms and balanced state funds could put the Ukrainian economy on the path of stable long-term growth, according to the National Bank of Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Feb. 19 – The Ukrainian metals and mining sector has several competitive advantages compared to other regions, although some $10-15 billion has to be invested into raising its efficiency, according to Alexey Pertin, Smart-holding's director general.