Top 10 economic events of the week from 18 to 23 October

Author

Valery Moisieiev

1. NBU downgraded the estimate of GDP growth and retained the inflation target

The National Bank of Ukraine downgraded its estimate of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2021 from 3.8% to 3.1%, but retained its target consumer inflation rate at 9.6%.

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2. GDP growth accelerated to 2.9%

The growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine in January—August accelerated to 2.9% compared to 2.1% in January—July. Such data were provided by the Ministry of Economy.

3. New Head of the Supreme Court was elected

The plenary session of the Supreme Court elected a new Head of the Court by secret ballot—the Secretary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, Vsevolod Kniazev, became the one. He will take up the post on December 1, 2021, upon completion of the term of Valentyna Danishevska, the current Head of the Court.

4.Ukraine and the IMF agreed on a new credit tranche

The International Monetary Fund mission and the government of Ukraine reached a staff-level agreement (SLA) on revising the Stand-By financing program, and that opens up the possibility of obtaining a loan of $700 million.

5. Lack of coal threatens with a shortage of electricity in Ukraine

From May 1 to October 18, thermal power plants supplied to the unified energy system of Ukraine twice less electricity than last year—almost 2.4 billion kWh.

6. Rada made amendments to the law on the NBU, significantly correcting its work

Ukraine undertook to adopt this law in a memorandum with the IMF. The amendments are aimed at increasing the independence of the National Bank.

7. Regulators called the financial situation in Ukraine stable

The Financial Stability Council made a conclusion that there were currently no significant threats to the stability of the financial situation in Ukraine. This is stated in a joint press release of the Ministry of Finance and the NBU.

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8. The draft state budget-2022 has not yet been adopted in the first reading: it is impossible to satisfy the deputies’ "wants and wishes"

Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko said that all the deputies’ proposals to increase the state budget expenditures cost 86 trillion UAH, and it is impossible to implement them. Therefore, the MPs began to decide what proposals could be removed. The discussion dragged on.

9. Bitcoin broke its all-time high

Bitcoin price at the moment reached $66,100 on the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has exceeded $2.6 trillion. The reason for the growth was the launch of the first cryptocurrency fund on the New York Stock Exchange.

10. NBU retained the discount rate at the same level

The Board of the National Bank retained the discount rate at 8.5% per annum. This is in line with the target of bringing inflation down to 5% at the end of the next year according to the baseline scenario of the updated macroeconomic forecast.