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tend to go into a market early in order to capture market share early on as they intend to never leave once established.
Likewise, JJLs reports that retail vacancy rates are falling and constriction is starting to pick up, in another sign of a slow revival in economic activity.
Of the macroeconomic issues, inflation remains the thorniest. Inflation ended 2018 at 9.8% after the central bank hiked rates twice, this year the regulator expects inflation to fall to 6.8%. That could lead to growth-boosting rate cuts. And on the funding front Kyiv says it will issue $2bn of Eurobonds this year, however, the debt burden rises from here.
2.0 Politics
2.1 Ukraine changes constitution to make NATO, EU membership a
goal
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, greenlighted on February 7 in the final readings the amendments to the nation’s constitution regarding the strategic course of the state to secure Ukraine’s full membership in the European Union (EU) and NATO.
The motion was backed by 334 lawmakers, exceeding the necessary minimum of 300 votes (the so-called constitutional majority). In November 2018, the Rada backed the amendment in the first reading.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told the parliament the same day that the country "will ensure its membership of NATO and its membership of the EU". "We are going our own way and this path, the path to Ukraine’s membership of the EU and NATO," Poroshenko underlined, adding that over the past five years, the country has been reforming its security sector and doing everything necessary to meet NATO standards.
In 2018, NATO granted Ukraine the status of an aspirant country earlier this year, which means that Kyiv has officially declared its aspiration to join the military alliance. The alliance provided Ukraine with the status of an aspirant country after a significant delay - over the past years the Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly stated that the country's accession to the military alliance remains a strategic goal for the national leadership.
According to Kyiv, Ukraine's primary goal is to make its army more efficient and combat ready through cooperation with Nato because of the persistent threat of Russian invasion. Russia, in turn, remains firmly opposed to the further enlargement of the military alliance and the accession of more former Soviet republics after the three Baltic states joined in 2004.
On February 7, the Rada appealed to the NATO member states to support Ukraine's intentions to become members of the military alliance and to begin a formal dialogue at the NATO summit in London in December on the provision of an action plan on alliance membership.
2.2 Tymoshenko loses her early lead in presidential polls
7 UKRAINE Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com
Ukrainian comic and Volodymyr Zelenskiy and President Petro Poroshenko lead in a new survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology