Ukraine exports $40 bln worth of goods in 2017 - NBU

"Exports of goods grew by 19% last year and amounted to $39.9 billion. Exports of food products rose by 16% due to supplies of grain crops, oils and fats, primarily of the 2016 harvest, and intensive exports of meat and dairy products," the report says.

The NBU notes that the breakdown of production and logistics ties with enterprises in non-government-controlled territories has led to a decrease in the physical volumes of exports of ferrous metals, but due to the growth of world prices, the value of exports of steel products grew by 22.1%. The value of exports of iron ore rose by 1.4 times due to favorable price conditions.

"The most significant increase in 2017 was recorded in the supply of Ukrainian products to the EU countries - by 32%. As a result, the EU countries became Ukraine's largest trading partner, and their share in total exports of goods increased to 35.4% (compared with 31.9% in 2016). At the same time, despite the growth of exports to Russia, its share in total exports of Ukrainian goods shrank to 8.5% (from 9.1% in 2016)," the NBU said.

In addition, imports of goods grew by 21% in 2017, to $49 billion. First of all, there was an expansion of energy imports - by 1.5 times. The shortage of coal in the domestic market, a large part of which was supplied from non-government-controlled areas in previous years, has led to an increase in the physical volumes of its imports. The intensified activity of private importers of natural gas has led to an increase in its purchases. At the same time, energy prices have risen in the world. This contributed significantly to the growth of the value of imported petroleum products by 27.6%. Amid a revival in domestic demand, there was a rapid increase in investment imports, including agricultural engineering products, and imports of passenger cars. Over the past year, imports of machine building products grew by 31%.

"The most significant increase last year was recorded in imports of goods from the EU countries (by 23%) due to supplies of natural gas and machine building products, as well as from Russia (by 40%) - due to supplies of coal, petroleum products and fertilizers," the NBU said.

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