Page 18 - bne IntelliNews Country Report: Ukraine Dec17

rebound in 2017 (after a very poor 2016) is removed.
2.7 Business and consumer confidence survey
2.8 Politics - misc
Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have gone to war with each other. The leading agency the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has opened a criminal probe into suspected extortion by members of a sister anti-corruption body. The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) is a keystone of Western-backed reforms but has been subjected to criticism for dragging its feet in checking officials' wealth declarations for evidence of illicit gains. NABU -- a sister agency investigating high-profile corruption cases -- said on November 14 that it opened the case against NAZK officials on suspicion that they had received "undue benefits in especially large amounts, combined with the extortion of such benefits." A NABU spokeswoman said that officials at other state agencies were also under investigation, but did not give further details.
The value of the top-100 most expensive brands in Ukraine are collectively worth $5.4bn, according to a report from the Novoe Vremia magazine and MMP Consulting. The top-three most expensive brands are mineral water Morshinska worth an estimated at $507mn, the Mykolaiv-based juice producer Sandora ($312mn), and the confectionery corporation Roshen ($274mn), that belongs to President Petro Poroshenko.
Ukraine ranks 113th among 137 countries of the world participated in the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s research of organised crime levels , Interfax news agency reported on November 27 quoting local media. Ukraine is in a group of countries with high levels of organised crime together with the states of Latin America and Africa. El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela have the worst ratings. Russia took the 86th place, Moldova - 94th. The rating was compiled on the basis of data for 2015-2016.
The Ukrainian government has fulfilled about 15% of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement since it was signed on June 27, 2014 , Ukrainian
18 UKRAINE Country Report December 2017 www.intellinews.com