In December, businesses continued to weaken their assessments of business activity: the monthly calculated business activity expectations index (BAEI) fell from 47.2 in November to 45.9, practically returning to the level of December 2023 (45.7), the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on Thursday. "The worsening security situation, more intense missile and drone attacks on energy facilities and the long time required to repair these facilities, further growth in energy, labor and logistics costs for businesses, accelerating inflation, declining investment demand, a shortage of skilled workers, and seasonal factors restrained economic activity and weakened the expectations of all polled sectors," the NBU explained the above results.