Page 17 - bne_newspaper_May_17_2019

Eastern Europe
May 17, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
Ukraine’s parliament schedules Zelenskiy's inauguration ceremony for May 20
The inauguration of Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy will take place on May 20, according to a special draft resolution greenlighted by the nation's parliament on May 16, which
in theory allows the new president to dissolve parliament before this October’s general election.
The motion followed numerous appeals of Zelenskiy to the outgoing President Petro Poroshenko, his loyal lawmakers and the parliament's speaker Andriy Parubiy to cease what he says are efforts to delay inauguration day, and organise the ceremony to be held on May 19. Originally the ceremony was slated to happen on June 3. The constitution forbids the dissolution of parliament six months prior to an election.
Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be sworn in on May 20 that will him to dissolve parliament and hold snap elections
On May 4, Zelenskiy urged Parubiy, to schedule the presidential inauguration for May 19. He said that "certainty is extremely important both for the people of Ukraine and for foreign guests who have already expressed a desire to attend the celebration."
The statement followed Zelenskiy's accusations that the official announcement of the voting results had been delayed with the aim of preventing snap elections to the nation's parliament. "There is victory, but no powers. Someone hides a mace [a symbol of the presidential inauguration] from me," he said in a video message published on April 25.
Read the full story here
Foreign investors get back into Russian OFZ bonds
The share of foreign investors in the Russian federal OFZ bonds as of end of April 2019 increased by almost 1pp month-on-month from 26.2% to 27.1%, according to the Central Bank of Russia data. Since the beginning of 2019 non- resident investors brought RUB455bn ($7bn) in the OFZ market, out of which RUB183bn or 42% of all placements in April alone.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, the OFZs have been on a rollercoaster ride in the last 18 months. Backed by rock solid fundamentals and paying a high 8-9% yield, the OFZs were very popular last year, until the US imposed the April 6 2018 round of sanctions which led to a sell off.
Reserve bank will not continue its tightening this year, appetite for OFZs returned at the start of this year as investors load up on OFZs once again, with the Ministry of Finance holding a number of record-high sales on weekly OFZ auctions.
In April the ministry placed RUB404bn in OFZ versus RUB269bn seen in March 2019, according to the CBR. Foreign investment thus grew
slower than the OFZ market overall. 33.5% of all placements was acquired by large Russian banks.
In dollar terms, In April, the ministry sold $5.3bn of OFZs in total in dollar terms – a new record amount – following $4.1 in March, $2.5 in February and $1.2bn in January.
However, as it has become clear the US Federal