Page 54 - UKRRptApr20

This week’s air travel bans will brake Ukraine’s double digit air passenger growth​. In the first two months of this year, the flow of air passengers using Ukrainian airports was up 15% y/y, to 3.2mn. The State Aviation Service reports that last year, air passenger growth was up 18.5% y/y, to 24.3mn.
9.1.4 ​Construction & Real estate sector news
Kyiv apartment rents dropped by one third in March, ​reports Obozrevatel, citing Maxim Baburyak, a real estate broker. “Now it’s very difficult to rent an apartment,” he tells the news site. “There are no showings. Realtors have lost their jobs. Earlier, if a good economy priced apartment got three to five showings a day, now there are not any calls.”
With e-commerce booming and shopping centres closed, warehouses may emerge as winners, Bloomberg reports ​in a story: “The Hottest Trade in Commodities Is Finding Space to Store Them.” “The cost of storage is exploding,” says the story which ranges from oil tank farms to cold storage warehouses. In Kyiv, CBRE Ukraine releases a new warehouse report: “Acute Shortage of Available Space Nudges Prime Rent Upwards.” Last year “shortage of available warehouse premises reached a critical point, with vacancy falling to almost none,” reports the real estate consultancy. “In 2020 only new sizeable project is expected to be delivered with little influence on any market indicators.”
9.1.6​ Agriculture sector news
On March 13 the government floated the idea of banning some agricultural exports to preserve supplies for the domestic market​. However, industry representatives were strongly opposed to the idea, saying it will bankrupt many smaller companies. A government ban on Ukraine’s major food export products -- grains, oilseeds, vegetable oil, and poultry – “may completely shut down the industry and lead hundreds or thousands of businesses to bankruptcy, depriving thousands or even hundreds of thousands of their jobs,” warns Alex Lissitsa, president of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club Association. President Zelenskiy has asked the Cabinet of Ministers to decide a list of food items that could be prohibited from export, in the event shortages appear.
54​ UKRAINE Country Report​ April 2018 ​ ​www.intellinews.com