News: EU Trade +35%, Italian +39%, UK +41.5%, Infrastructure Investment, Growing Economy = Inflation
By James Brooke, UBN
🔵 Ukraine’s exports to the EU have increased by more than one third so far this year
🔵 Italy-Ukraine trade increased by 39%
🔵 In the first five months of the UK-Ukraine free trade deal, bilateral trade has jumped by 41.5% yoy
🔵 President Zelenskiy plans to spend $9 billion during the three remaining years of his term to rebuild and repair 43,000 km of national roads and 119,000 km of local roads. no road will “be put into operation without modern sidewalks, without bike lanes, without modern lighting and video surveillance.”
🔵 Inflation in May increased by 9.5% in annual terms, up from 8.4% in April, the State Statistics Service reports. This is almost double last year’s inflation rate of 5%. Last month, the biggest yoy increases were: natural gas +162%; sunflower oil +75%; and sugar +67%. The biggest drops were: vegetables -13%; shoes – 4%; and clothes -3.6%.
🔵 With inflation now well above Ukraine’s 7.5% prime rate, the National Bank of Ukraine is expected to increase interest rates at its next board meeting, on June 17. The central bank had forecast inflation this year at 8%.
