🔵 With foreign investors increasingly believing in Ukraine’s foreign exchange rate stability, the Finance Ministry sharply cut yieldsby 60 basis points on 3-month papers, to 8.47%; by 13 basis points on 1-year papers, to 10.67%; and by 11 basis points on 1.5-year papers, to 11.04%.
🔵 Foreign investors were the fastest growing class of buyers in February, increasing their holdings by $233 million, Bohdan Danylyshyn, chairman of the National Bank Council, writes on Facebook. Last year, foreign investors’ share of the issues tumbled: from 15% in February to 8% in late November. Since then, it has rebounded to 12.2%.
🔵 “Ukraine local bonds are back,” headlines a story in BNEIntellinews. “Despite the political brouhaha that never ends in Ukraine, the macroeconomic situation has improved enormously in the last two years,” Ben Aris writes from Berlin. “Inflation has fallen to post-Soviet lows, forex reserves have risen to give 4.4 months of import cover (a comfortable level), the banking sector is healthy, and Ukraine ran a large trade surplus in 2020…Focusing just on the economic arguments, the outlook for Ukraine’s local bond market looks very attractive. It compares very well with its frontier and emerging market peers.”
🔵 International brand hotels in Ukraine are to increase by 50% by 2023, Planned openings for this year are: Radisson Hotel City Center Odesa – 90 rooms; Best Western Plus Lviv Market Square – 70; and Ibis & Adagio Kyiv – 265. Planned for opening by 2023 are: Ibis Lviv – 100; Radisson Hotel Pechersk Park Kyiv – 167; Sheraton Kyiv Troitska Square – 208; Novotel Lviv – 125; and Hampton by Hampton Lviv airport – 138.