Interfax Ukraine Business Daily

Ukraine's economy will grow 4.5% in 2011 and in 2012, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said in its regional economic forecast, which was released on Friday.

In January, the EBRD forecast 4% growth of Ukraine's GDP in 2011.

At the same time, the bank expects that the country's economy will grow by 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to the fourth quarter of 2010, and by 6% in the fourth quarter of 2012 year-over-year.

According to its estimates, average annual inflation will decline this year to 7.8%, down from 9.4% in 2010, while the fiscal deficit will decrease from 5.8% of GDP to 2.8% of GDP.

At the same time, the bank expects that the current account deficit in 2011 will grow to 3.6% of GDP from 1.9% of GDP last year, with the net foreign direct investments falling from 4.2% of GDP to 3.9% of GDP.

The EBRD also said that the crucial reforms of fiscal and energy sector in Ukraine are facing political resistance, which delays the implementation of the programs of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.

Kyiv, May 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said that there must be no cases of there being a rise in the cost of tickets for children's recreation establishments.

"There is the objective procedure, and we must prevent an unfair rise in the cost of tickets," he said at an extended meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv on Friday.

According to Azarov, the Social Policy Ministry and the Finance Ministry must oversee these issues.

At the same time, the premier said that a rise in the cost of tickets for children's recreation establishments is inadmissible, as a significant part of these funds are reimbursed from the local budget.

Azarov also said there was the need to conduct the state certification of all establishments where children would go for holidays.

Kyiv, May 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has charged Ukrainian Education, Science, Youth and Sports Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk and Head of the State Committee on Science, Innovation and Information Volodymyr Semynozhenko with holding talks with Belarus on the creation of a joint innovation center.

"I charge Semynozhenko and Tabachnyk with getting in touch [with the sides] as soon as possible. We will prepare the necessary legislative basis," the Ukrainian premier said during an event on the occasion of Science Day in Kyiv on Friday.

Azarov noted that on May 19, during talks with the leadership of Belarus, he proposed to create a joint innovation center, and stressed that Ukraine needs new, active science and technology development.

Kyiv, May 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine and Russia are in a continuous dialog on various cooperation projects, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Raisa Bohatyriova has said.

When asked at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday, which countries are the principal partners of Ukraine, she said: "I think we are interesting to all of them."

"You know that Russia is a strategic partner of Ukraine. And the programs, especially government ones, which were worked out a year ago, are currently either being discussed or actually implemented," Bohatyriova said.

So the process of negotiations with Russia and the cooperation haven't been interrupted, she said.

Speaking about cooperation with the European Union, Bohatyriova stressed the intensity of such contacts also depends on Ukraine.

"It is impossible to say who is paying us more attention, and who is paying less attention [Russia or the West], I think we are getting exactly the amount of attention that is needed to pursue our national interests, the national development plan and our reforms, and the intensity of these processes depends not always on partners, but on the activity of Ukraine as well," the NSDC secretary said.

As reported on Wednesday, Bohatyriova said that Russia's interest in Ukraine was growing, while the United States and the European Union were gradually losing interest in the country.

Kyiv, May 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The total volume of money transfers to Ukraine through international non-resident money transfer systems in 2010 was $2.615 billion, which is 16% up on 2009.

The head of the department for monitoring money transfer systems at the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Olena Makhaeva, said at the third international conference entitled "The market of money transfers, banking metals and cash currency" held in Kyiv on Friday that this figure last year reached the pre-crisis level seen in 2008.

Makhaeva also noted that the volume of urgent money transfers sent from Ukraine through international money transfer systems created by non-residents in 2010 grew by 27%, to $378 million.

The average sum of transfers exceeded $500.

The largest amounts were sent to Ukraine through the following international money transfer systems: Western Union - 41%, UNIStream - 13%, and MoneyGram - 10%.

There are 22 money transfer systems in Ukraine created by non-residents.

Kyiv, May 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The total sum of subsidies to compensate for the expenses of families in paying for utility services in January-April 2011 in Ukraine came to UAH 73 million, which is UAH 48.6 million or 2.29 times up year-over-year, the State Statistics Service has reported.

The service said that in January-April subsidies were approved for 463,800 families, which is 93.6% of the total number of families that asked for subsidies and 2.2 times up year-over-year.

The average subsidy per family in April 2011 grew by 1.6 times compared to April 2010, to UAH 107.10. Some 60.8% of families that obtained subsidies in April 2011 consist of one person.

The largest subsidies in April 2011 were registered in Sevastopol and Kyiv (UAH 494.70 and UAH 243.6 respectively), and the lowest were in Kirovohrad, Ternopil and Kherson regions (UAH 13.90-31.70).

As reported, subsidies to compensate for the expenses of families to pay for utility services in 2010 came to UAH 237.4 million, which is 1.7 times up year-over-year.

Simferopol, May 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The Crimean parliament has sent an appeal to President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych with a request to assist in the extension until 2015 of the program of resettlement and rehabilitation of the deported Crimean Tatars and other nationalities, who have returned to Ukraine, their adaptation and integration into Ukrainian society.

This decision was supported by 83 out of 86 members of the Crimean parliament who took part in the vote. The program was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on May 11 2006 for the period until 2010.

The Crimean deputies recalled that the presidential decree dated May 14, 2010 instructed the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to take steps to accelerate the adoption of a program for resettlement of deportees for the period until 2015.

However, the state program for resettlement and rehabilitation of deportees has not been extended yet, and Ukraine's state budget for 2011 assigned only UAH 23.3 million for these purposes.