KIEV, July 29 - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded Ukraine's sovereign credit ratings Thursday after the International Monetary Fund had approved $15.1 billion lending package to the country.

KIEV, July 29 – The hryvnia will continue weakening under the pressure of payments of foreign loans, payments for imported gas and the devaluation expectations of the public, but the National Bank of Ukraine could impact the pace of the fall in the exchange rate, according to bankers polled by Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

KIEV, July 28 - The National Electricity Regulatory Commission of Ukraine has approved retail tariffs for energy supply companies for August.

Retail tariffs for first class electricity consumers from August 1, 2009, will be 43.59 kopecks per kilowatt-hour (not including VAT), and for second class electricity consumers 58.46 kopecks per kilowatt-hour (not including VAT).

KIEV, July 28 - Ukraine has already exported 1.5 million tons of grain in the new agricultural year, which runs from July 2009 to June 2010, Agricultural Policy Minister Yuriy Melnyk told journalists in Kiev on Tuesday.

KIEV, July 29 – The National Bank of Ukraine has banned banks posting losses from issuing unsecured credits, dealing with insiders when giving new credits and guarantees, buying their own shares and buying nongovernmental securities in their own name.

KIEV, July 29 – Ukrainian companies today do not have the technologies to produce locomotives for high-speed operations, the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) said.

"Production of high-speed operating rolling stock in Ukraine is possible, but only in close cooperation with more skilled international producers," Oleksandr Honcharov, the head of the state scientific and research railway transport center state company, part of Ukrzaliznytsia, said at a press conference organized by Management Consulting Group in Kiev on Tuesday.

KIEV, July 29 – A cabinet instruction to the Finance Ministry and Naftogaz Ukrayiny to take measures on restructuring the state holding's debt on foreign loans and cut credit servicing costs via refinancing has affected Naftogaz Ukrayiny's $500 million issue of eurobonds which due September 2009.

KIEV, July 28 – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has postponed until Sept. 30 consideration of a $125 million loan for the construction of a cogeneration plant at Alchevsk steel mill.

The overall cost of the project is $191 million. The loan was originally planned to be considered on July 22, 2008.

KIEV, July 28 - Ukrainian Automobile Holding Ltd. (Kiev), one of the main operators on the Ukrainian automobile market and part of the Bogdan Corporation, in April-June 2008 increased its net revenues from car sales by 3.6 times year-on-year, to UAH 928.66 million, according to a company report at the State Commission for Securities and the Stock Market.

KIEV, July 28 – The net profit of Ukrtransnafta, the Ukrainian monopolist in oil transportation, in January to June under Ukrainian accounting standards fell by 42.5% or UAH67 million year-over-year, to UAH 90.851 million, according to a company report at the State Commission for Securities and the Stock Market.