KIEV, Aug. 20 – The National Bank of Ukraine is toughening foreign currency purchase rules with the introduction of a requirement to service one economic agreement in one bank.

The decision is stipulated in NBU resolution No. 308, which will take effect from the moment of its publication on August 23, 2012.

KIEV, Aug. 20 — The government on Monday dismissed the head of EnergoAtom, the state-owned nuclear power generating giant, creating a vacancy for the position, which will supervise $5 billion in new capacity projects within eight years.

ZAPORIZHIA, Aug. 20 – Zaporizhia regional state administration chairman Oleksandr Starukh on Tuesday ordered an inspection of the DniproGES hydropower facility, following an accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant in Russia.

KIEV, Aug, 20 – Inflation in Ukraine in 2009 will be 16%, while GDP will fall by 13.5%, according to a forecast from the International Center for Policy Studies.

"Real GDP will fall by 13.5% over the year. The hryvnia [the official exchange rate] will fall to UAH 10 per $1 by late 2009 [the average rate over 2009 will be UAH 8.3 per $1].

KIEV, Aug. 19 -- Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the long-term local currency deposit and long-term foreign currency debt ratings of Bank Finance and Credit to B1 from B2 and the bank's National Scale Rating to Aa3.ua from A1.ua.

KIEV, Aug. 19 -- Alfred C. Toepfer International (Ukraine) Ltd. plans to export 3 million tons of grain from Ukraine in the current marketing year (July 2008 through June 2009).

KIEV, Aug. 19 – In the nearest future the price of natural gas exported to Ukraine from Russia will be the same as in the rest of Europe, former President Leonid Kravchuk said at a press conference on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, Aug. 19 – OSAO ROSSIA insurance company plans to enter the markets of Ukraine and Azerbaijan, the company said in a press release.

KIEV, Aug. 19 – The share of bread wheat in the current year will top 40% of the overall wheat yield in Ukraine, the Agriculture Policy Ministry forecasts.

"We project that bread wheat will account for over 40% of the overall yield of wheat," Anatoliy Rozgon, the director of the ministry's agricultural market development department, told reporters on Tuesday.

KIEV, Aug. 19 – Inflation expectations worsened in Ukraine in May-June, and the Ukrainians' estimation of their current welfare dropped to a record low over the last five years, according to the International Center for Policy Studies (ICPS).