NEUCHÂTEL, May 18 – Philip Morris International, one of the leaders in the global and Ukrainian tobacco market, currently considers it unsafe to resume production at its factory near Kharkiv (Dokuchayevske village, Kharkiv district, Kharkiv region) and plans to launch alternative production in the country, said Philip Morris International (PMI) President for Europe Region Massimo Andolina.

KYIV, May 16 – The restaurant market in Kyiv has halved, since the beginning of the war at least a third of establishments have been closed, Olha Nasonova, the co-founder of the National Restaurant Association of Ukraine, told Interfax-Ukraine.

KYIV, May 17 - Ukraine and Poland have agreed to ensure the possibility of transit of grain crops through joint border checkpoints, as well as its rail transit through the border checkpoints Werchrata-Rava Ruska, Medyka-Shehyni and Kroscienko-Smilnytsia.

KYIV, May 14 – Transit of natural gas through the gas transmission system (GTS) of Ukraine in January-April 2021 amounted to 14.1 billion cubic meters, which is 9% less than in the same period in 2020 (15.5 billion cubic meters), according to the statement of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC (GTSOU).

KYIV, May 14 – After increasing the key policy rate in April to 7.5%, rates on hryvnia loans from banks increased as compared to the first half of April from 11.9% to 12.5%, Head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Bohdan Danylyshyn said.

KYIV, May 14 – The fall in the gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020 accelerated to 2% from 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020, the State Statistics Service published this preliminary estimate on Friday.

KYIV, May 17 – Ukraine’s gasoline chains on Monday resumed selling premium fuel, a day after confusion about over pricing had forced them to shut down following the government’s controversial measures to regulate the sector.

KYIV, May 18 – Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko asked Valeriy Tarasiuk, head of the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER), to prohibit the import of electricity from Russia and Belarus on the basis of the Ukrenergo Certification Law No. 1396-IX, which gave him such a right.

KYIV, May 15 – Ukraine's real GDP in the first quarter of 2020 fell by 1.5% compared with the first quarter of 2019, the State Statistics Service said.

According to its data, compared with the previous quarter, the seasonally adjusted decline in GDP was 0.8%.

KYIV, May 15 – Ukraine's economy will contract by 5.2% in 2020, but will probably resume growth and expand by 3.6% in 2021, analysts from Oxford Economics predict.