Ukraine immersed in massive debt

Recently, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has published the disastrous amount of compulsory payments on a huge national debt. In particular, Kiev will have to pay 3.069 trillion grivnas from this year to 2025, including 1.948 trillion and 1.121 trillion grn worth of debt repayment and debt service respectively.

In the first half of this year, the Ministry of Finance paid only 104.725 billion grn in settlement of the enormous national debt. In addition, Ukraine paid the IMF $606.8 million in August as debt servicing.

KPI designers of nanosatellites meet with delegation of Polish Space Agency

Representatives of the Department of Science and Innovation at the Igor Sikorsky Kiev Polytechnic Institute (KPI) and researchers working on the implementation of the University’s Space Program met with representatives of the Polish Space Agency on October 10.

Led by Grzegorz Brona, President of the Polish Space Agency, the delegation included Prof. Krzysztof Wesolowski and Rafal Krenz of the Poznan University of Technology (PUT), among others. In addition, the Polish delegation was accompanied by Oleg Kazanishchev, first secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Poland, and Galina Tsymbal, chief specialist of the Division of International Projects Management at the International Relations Department under the State Space Agency of Ukraine.

As far as KPI participants are concerned, Yuri Sidorenko and Igor Litvinov, deputy vice-rectors for science, Boris Rassamakin, head of the Laboratory of Nanosatellite Technology, Sergey Pukha, chief engineer of the special design bureau Storm, Prof. Sergey Shukayev, head of the International Projects Office of the International Collaboration Department, and others took part in the meeting with the representatives of the Polish space industry.

The participants in the meeting considered some purely technical questions concerning space technology developed at Igor Sikorsky KPI and possibilities for expanding cooperation.

Yevgeni Kovalenko, member of the KPI nanosatellite development, provided the guests with input about the work on these space vehicles and characteristics of those that are already in near-earth orbit as well as those that are being designed and built. In particular, discussions at the meeting focused on the PolyITAN-3-PUT nanosatellite, which is being created in conjunction with the Poznan University of Technology (this is evidenced by the abbreviation for the Polish university used in the name of the new nanosatellite). This vehicle is designed for Earth remote sensing. PUT representatives Krzysztof Wesolowski and Rafal Krenz outlined engineering developments and proposals in terms of its systems and design stages.

Great interest was expressed in the presentation of the KPI concept to form a grouping of microsatellites for Earth remote sensing, which Sergey Pukha showcased at the meeting. This grouping is supposed to consist of six microsatellites weighing up to 100 kilograms, capable of carrying much more payload than nanosatellites (the mass of nanosatellites cannot exceed 10 kg). Compared with their existing counterparts, the microsatellites developed by KPI experts will have several considerable differences, capable of performing a wider range of tasks, especially when operating as a part of the grouping.

SPF plans to receive 17.1 billion grn from sale of state assets

This year the government of Ukraine planned to receive 21.3 billion grivnas from the sale of state assets. Of this sum, however, the State Property Fund (SPF) has steered only 50 million grn worth of privatization revenue to the national budget, which accounted for about 0.2% of the plan.

According to acting SPF chairman Vitaly Trubarov, the problem to sell state-owned property in 2018 can be explained by the fact that the Supreme Council, Ukraine's parliament, has long been procrastinating on a new bill of privatization. Notwithstanding the document was ready for adoption as recently as last year, the new law has taken effect from May 2018 only. For this reason, the SPF failed to sell any “serious” state property.

Mr. Trubarov believes nothing can get in the way of selling state assets in the amount of some 17.1 billion grn next year.

Russia is top supplier of wheat

According to experts' estimates, among major players on the global wheat market in the 2017-18 season have been Russia (23% of total wheat exports), the United States (14%), the European Union (13%) and Canada (12%). Ukraine ranks fifth globally with 10% share. At the same time, Ukraine is the fourth largest supplier (13%) in the global corn market while the top three positions are shared by the U.S. (42%), Argentina (16%) and Brazil (16%).

Exact sciences aren't popular with Ukrainian entrants

This year the largest number of applications for admission to Ukraine's higher educational institutions was submitted by entrants into such "popular" professions as philology, law, management, tourism, computer science and software engineering. At the same time, the exact sciences like physics, chemistry and mathematics had few entrants.

According to experts, as a result of this imbalance, most philology, management and law graduates may well face serious difficulties in finding jobs in their own profession. To increase their chances in the labor market, citizens of Ukraine can receive further education, whereas 68% of them are not very keen to do so yet.

КПИ - снова первый среди украинских вузов

Киевский политехнический институт имени Игоря Сикорского (КПИ) вновь занял первое место в рейтинге uniRank.

Веб-портал uniRank, который представляет неакадемический рейтинг высших учебных заведений мира, исходя из популярности их официальных веб-сайтов, обнародовал рейтинг за 2018 год. Несмотря на смену алгоритма, КПИ и в текущем году остался лидером рейтинга среди украинских университетов.

Ранжирование осуществляется с 2005 года на основе вебометрических данных. Целью uniRank University является представить рейтинг популярности мировых университетов и колледжей, основанный на популярности их веб-сайтов с точки зрения трафика, доверия и качества ссылочной популярности. Это должно помочь иностранным студентам и научным сотрудникам понять, насколько популярен конкретный университет или колледж.

Russian, Ukrainian banks offer high deposit rates

The most profitable deposits are offered in the CIS countries, particularly Russia and Byelorussia, as well as in Ukraine, where domestic and foreign currency deposit rates account for 12-18% and 8-12% per annum respectively. These are followed by high deposit rates in Iran, Vietnam, Mongolia and Argentina. Although foreign currency deposit rates are constantly changing in these countries, they remain persistently high, making up about 10-12%.

Assessing the dynamics of deposit rates and comparing it with the current state of the country's economy, some financial analysts found that colossally high rates are often observed before a crisis. For example, it happened in Ukraine at the end of 2012, and households could deposit their money with banks at the 27% and 15% annual interest rates in grivnas and dollars respectively.

In fact, the grivna fell 40% at the start of 2014 and this collapse shocked the financial system. It was like being a passenger on a plane that was crashing, but you had no way out of the plane.

By comparison, deposit interest rates in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are 1.05%, 2% and 1-2% respectively. As a rule, 3% is the interest rate ceiling for all banks in the U.S. and developed countries of Western Europe where the deposit is seen not as a means of enrichment, but the most available method of safekeeping cash. At the same time, Serbia's banks offer the highest deposit rates in Europe reaching 10%.

Not surprisingly, rich Europeans keep money in banks, despite the low rates. This is the reliable method because many financial institutions have been operating there for over 150 years.