KIEV, Oct. 15 – Expectations that the hryvnia, the Ukrainian currency, will weaken rose in Q3, the National Bank of Ukraine reported.

"Expectations concerning the stability of the forex rate have considerably weakened: the share of the pollees who expect that the forex rate of the hryvnia against the U.S. dollar will remain unchanged slid to 16.5% compared to 40.3% in the second quarter," reads the report.

KIEV, Oct. 15 - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development now believes Ukraine's GDP will shrink 14% in 2009 compared with its earlier forecast for a 10% contraction, the bank said in a statement.

KIEV, Oct. 16 – The World Bank has retained its forecast for the fall in Ukraine's gross domestic product in 2009 at 15% and revised upwards the GDP growth forecast in 2010 from 1% to 2.5%, World Bank senior economist Ruslan Piontkivsky said.

He said inflation in Ukraine in 2009 is projected at up to 14%, and in 2010 at up to 11%.

KIEV, Oct. 18 - Ukraine's GDP in 2007 will grow by 6.7%, average annual inflation will be 11.5%, and inflation from December to December will be 11%, according to the World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Spillovers and Cycles in the Global Economy.

KIEV, Oct. 18 - Ukraine’s biggest natural gas trader, UkrGaz-Energo, wired the first $200 million payment to pay an outstanding $929 million debt owed to Russian gas giant Gazprom for gas supplies, the trader reported Thursday.

KIEV, Oct. 16 – Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko doesn't rule out that the circle of suspects may widen in the case of Dnipropetrovsk gas explosion, which destroyed a residential building on Oct. 13 and caused 16 confirmed deaths already.

KIEV, Oct. 17 – Ukrainian communications operators in January through September increased their revenues from services by 19.9% year-on-year, to UAH28.96 billion, according to the State Statistics Committee.

KIEV, Oct. 17 – State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine (Ukreximbank), through its representative office in New York, plans to establish business relations between large Ukrainian companies and foreign partners, according to a bank announcement.

KIEV, Oct. 17 - Evraz Group President Valeriy Khoroshkovsky has sold his stake in Soyuz-Victan, one of the largest hard liquor producers in Russia and Ukraine, to foreign investors.

KIEV, Oct. 17 ??“ Some 270,000 personal computers were supplied to Ukraine in H1, a 40% increase over the same period last year, International Data Corporation analytical company reported.