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The Regions This Week
August 18, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Eastern Europe
North Korea’s success in testing an interconti- nental ballistic missile used Ukrainian engines, bought on the black-market, the New York
Times reported on August 14, citing an expert analysis and classified assessments by US intel- ligence agencies. President Petro Poroshenko has ordered an investigation.
Russia has the most barriers to trade for Euro- pean exporters, according to a report from the European Commission (EC). The EC identifies 372 barriers to trade currently in use, with the largest stock of barriers (33) imposed by Russia.
Ukraine's real GDP grew 2.4% year-on-year across April-June, the Ukrstat state statistics agency in Kyiv reported on August 14. Ukraine's GDP in the first quarter of 2017 grew by 2.5% y/y (vs the previously expected 2.4% y/y).
Russian industrial production has markedly decelerated following a strong spring. It came in at 1.1% y/y in July, paling against June's 3.5% y/y. However, at least the growth is broad-based and up in all eight of Russia’s federal districts.
The average life expectancy in Russia in the first half of this year was up by half a year to 72.4 years, according to Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, due to a decrease in mortality, reports Vedomosti. "According to the results of the first half of 2017, the death rate decreased to 12.9 per 1,000 people," she said.
Ukraine's balance of payments deficit more than doubled to $1.882bn in January-June 2017, increasing by almost 2.6 times compared to the same period a year earlier. In the first half of 2016, Ukraine ran a balance of payments deficit of $727.5mn, according to the State Statistics Ser- vice, reported Interfax.
In July 2017 Russian banks posted pre-tax profit of RUB 157bn or the second-highest profit dur- ing the year after RUB 215bn posted in April 2017.
For 7mo17, pre-tax profit reached RUB 927bn, which is almost in line with the FY16 results of RUB 930bn.
The Ukrainian banking system saw UAH1.85bn (€390mn) of net losses in January-June, the Na- tional Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on August 11. The result was attributed to large growth in sending aside funds to reserves by banks in the second quar- ter of the year most due to problems at PrivatBank.
Ukraine’s finance ministry has raised $351.5mn from one of the largest placements of two-year, US dollar-denominated local bonds at an aver- age yield of 5.4%, the ministry in Kyiv reported on August 15.
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov sold 7% of the share capital of the world's largest aluminum producer Rusal to SUAL Partners controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, the company announced.
Gazprom’s net income collapsed by 90% y/y,
according to the state-owned gas giant’s 1H17 Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) numbers. Net income in the first half of this year was RUB17,376mn ($290mn) vs RUB194,417mn a year ago, a fall of 91% y/y. Most of the loss was attrib- uted to a foreign currency exchange loss.
Russian diamond mine Alrosa says an accident that killed eight miners will not affect its pro- duction guidance for the 2017 financial year. The company has called off search and rescue efforts for the eight miners lost when its main Mirny mine flooded earlier this month.
The grain yield of this year’s Russian harvest will be higher than last year’s record crop, but the overall harvest is expected to be down in terms of tonnage by 16% y/y, according to Rosstat. The average grain yield by the beginning of August was 44.6 centners per hectare, 15.9% up on last year. The ministry says the harvest will be 103mn- 105mn vs last year’s 119mn tonnes.