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infrastructure and companies in Ukraine and other affected countries. It is an outstanding expression of confidence
in the bank and definitely helps us invest into projects worth a much greater amount,” Renaud-Basso said.
The war is not over, but after Russia refocused its military effort into “Phase 2” and concentrated on capturing the Donbas region and the southeastern corner of the country, the rest of
the country has largely returned to Kyiv’s control. The economy in the government-controlled regions is slowly starting to restart with shops and cafes in Kyiv reopening.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on May 10 that card terminal usage across the country shows that the Ukrainian economy is gradually returning to work, with the number of non-cash payment terminals owned by PrivatBank increasing by 42% in the last two weeks, with small businesses
resuming card payments more actively. At the start of the war the number of active terminals fell by 66% at its lowest point, and the volume of transactions fell by 39% during the first two months.
The EBRD believes that between 30% and 50% of all Ukraine’s companies have suspended operations but as the military operations are now more concentrated in the eastern regions, small businesses in particular are starting to revive
their operations and the EBRD has launched a programme worth €150mn specifically to support this activity.
However, the country still needs help to keep the power on and municipalities need cash to cope with the millions
of people that have been internally displaced, not to mention help to allow farms to start on the sowing season.
Renaud-Basso said that the EBRD is also helping with these sectors, providing trade-financing facilities
and it signed off on a €50mn loan
to Ukrenergo, the national power company, to provide emergency liquidity to the company so that it could continue to provide electricity to the grid. In addition there was another €53mn package to provide farmers with funds to allow them to work.
Overshadowed by the Ukraine
war, the bank’s governors also
took another historical decision during this year’s meeting and approved a “limited and phased” expansion of the EBRD’s operations to sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq.
“This doesn't mean we will be starting activities there yet. Further steps will be needed. For now our focus will
be on the Ukraine crisis and we will come back, subject to further decisions taken by our board of governors,
with the next steps on sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq no later than this time next year,” Renaud-Basso said.
Why Kosovo is one of the fastest growing economies in emerging Europe
Clare Nuttall in Marrakesh
Exports of both goods and services have driven Kosovo’s recovery from
the coronavirus (COVID-19) as companies take advantage of its position as a nearshore destination for the EU, and are set to boost its growth in 2022 as well, Minister of Finance, Labour and Transfers Hekuran Murati said on May 10.
Kosovo is set to be one of the fastest growing economies across emerging Europe this year, according to the latest set of projections from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Its GDP growth is forecast at 4.0% in 2022, on a par with Uzbekistan and behind only Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
What these three Eurasian economies have in common is that they are all rich in hydrocarbons and are thus set to benefit from sky high oil and gas prices. Azerbaijan, moreover, is seen as a key supplier state as European countries seek to diversify their gas imports
away from Russia, while Turkmenistan has been insulated from the ongoing geopolitical crisis by its extreme isolation.
Kosovo, a small nation of around 2mn people in the Western Balkans, has none of these advantages. However, as Murati told a panel at the EBRD annual meeting in Marrakesh on May 10, it has managed to benefit from the disruption to international supply chains by first the pandemic and more recently the war in Ukraine.
Murati spoke of positive indicators in 2021, notably real GDP growth of 10.53% as Kosovo’s economy recovered from the coronacrisis.
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