The policy papers are the joint product of the German Advisory Group for Economic Reforms in Ukraine and the IER aimed at providing economic policy recommendations to Ukraine’s policy makers. The recommendations are based on the careful analysis of Ukraine’s situation, state-of-the-art economic theory, and best international practices. The papers are available for policy makers and – with some time lag – for general public.
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The key question of this paper is how the performance of the credit reporting system in Ukraine could be improved. In answering this question, we concentrate on the private bureaus active in Ukraine and in a first step identify the main impediments, data fragmentation and lack of data.
Adequate access to finance is for agricultural enterprises in Ukraine of crucial importance. Empirical evidence suggests though that this access is often severely constrained, especially for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises. Lending to agriculture is subject to a number of specific sectoral risks, and not all banks fully understand these risks.
Der ukrainische Agrarsektor unterliegt einer weitgehenden Steuerbefreiung. Als Fazit bzgl. der zeitlich unbegrenzten Mehrwertsteuersonderregelung bleibt festzuhalten, dass dieses System gepaart mit der Mehrwertsteuerbefreiung im Agrarhandel bis Ende 2014 als Instrument zur Förderung von landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben ungeeignet erscheint und deshalb Beide gemeinsam abgeschafft werden sollten.
n 2012 Ukraine experienced two flashes of dairy trade disputes with Russia. First time in February and then in early fall Russia suspended imports of cheese from several Ukrainian dairies. The formal reasons for trade restrictions from Russia’s side were ensuring food safety and quality. As Ukraine exports about 40% of its dairy products, and about 70% of these exports goes to Russia, this dispute has been quite critical for the sector. This has not been the first dairy conflict in the history of both countries since the break up of the Soviet Union, nevertheless Ukraine keeps exporting its dairy exports mainly to Russia.
From 2000 to 2008, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) pegged the Hryvnia to the US dollar. In the autumn 2008 the international financial crisis hit Ukraine and the currency was let to float, a move which implied a sizeable devaluation. During the course of 2009 the NBU allowed for some currency flexibility. However, since January 2010 the Hryvnia has been de facto fixed once again to the US dollar at a level of around 8.00 UAH/USD.
There is a solid business case for pellet production in Ukraine. Our analysis suggests that in the majority of cases pelleting is a profitable undertaking. However, pellet production remains just a profitable business instead of becoming an industry of national importance that can help to improve Ukraine’s energy security. This can be explained by a number of general obstacles associated with the country’s legislation and market development as well as specific factors relevant for the pelleting industry.
The current model of wholesale electricity market ("single pool" or "single buyer" model) is complex and inefficient. For many years, electricity tariffs for households were significantly lower than tariffs for industry and even the cost of production and supply. At the same time, the number and amount of benefits provided to certain groups of consumers rise, which increases cross-subsidization in the industry. The level of subsidies in the structure of the wholesale market price is significant and is one of the main drivers of its growth, resulting in increased retail tariffs for industrial consumers.
The ineffectiveness of budget spending has historically been one of the main flaws in Ukraine’s budgetary system, especially due to the lack of clear rules about providing state aid to commercial entities.
On January 27th 2012, the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine made public its Draft Law ‘On Agriculture’. So after more than 20 years of transition Ukrainian agriculture is near to have its own framework law. In its current form, however, the Draft of the Law contains quite questionable objectives of the State agricultural policy (SAP) and the measures to reach them.
Credit bureaus are an essential part of the financial infrastructure of a country. By pooling and exchanging information about borrowers, banks can improve their risk management and lending decisions. In such a way, the cost of borrowing can be reduced and the access to finance of previously underserved borrowers like SMEs increased, a fact that is supported by wide empirical evidence. Consequently, credit bureaus are not just important for banks, but also for the real economy and the society.