Page 7 - UKRRptNov19

rates in October, which will give the economy a growth shot in the arm going forward. The NBU is expected to ease rates further as part of the effort to kick start the virtuous circle of growth and investment.
International reserves are also stable at around $22bn or over 3 months of future import cover that will keep the exchange rate stable at around UAH25 to the dollar that is expected to rise to UAH26-27 next year.
Going forward Zelenskiy has a lot of work to do. The Minsk II peace negotiation got a fillip after Zelenskiy signed off on the Steinmeier Formula that Russia insisted on before the next Normandy Four meeting. There also has to be a ceasefire but Zelenskiy was struggling to get the paramilitary veterans to leave the combat zone, but at the time of writing it appears he has succeeded so the whole process is moving forward. Zelenskiy has to delivery on a peace deal, or at least be seen to be creditably trying to deliver and so far he is making progress.
Finally the question of Kolomoisky and Privatbank aside, the government is sticking to its hectic legislative agenda and new pro-reform, anti-corruption laws are being passed every week. In the last month 1,000 state owned companies have been removed from the list exemptng them from privatisation. The state owned railaway company is being put up an IPO in the next year. The Anti-corruption court has started work. A whistleblower law has been passed. Laws to unbundle the transport and production of gas have been passed. And dozens of other laws are due to be either enacted or presented to the Rada before the end of the year.
2.0 Politics
2.1 Ukraine agrees to Steinmeier formula to implement Minsk
Accords
The Ukrainian government agreed on October 1 to fulfill the Minsk Accords to resolve the warfare in the Donbas region by implementing the Steinmeier formula, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the same day. The agreement was confirmed with the OSCE during the Trilateral Contact Group talks in Minsk, he said. Zelensky made the announcement only after the agreement was reported by Russian mass media. He offered a basic summary at a press briefing that evening.
“The temporary law on the special order of local self-governance of the Separate Districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, also known in the public as the law on Donbas special status, will take effect on a permanent basis on conditions – please, this is very important – on conditions when local elections are held there in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine, and also after the publication of the OSCE report that the elections occurred in accordance with OSCE standards and international standards of democratic elections,” Zelensky said.
That means no elections in the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (collectively known as “Donbas”) will occur at gunpoint, Zelensky said. The temporary law, which has been renewed each year since 2014, will be replaced once it expires on December 31 with a new law drafted by the parliament in tight cooperation with the public, Zelensky said. “In this new law, no red lines will be crossed, which is why there isn’t, and never will be any
7 UKRAINE Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.com