Ukraine’s Investment Attractiveness Index in H2 2016 totaled 2.85 points, compared with 2.88 points in H1 2016 and 2.57 points in H2 2015, according to a study by the European Business Association via a poll of top company managers in November and December, Interfax Ukraine reported. According to the study, 67 percent of businesses are not satisfied with the current investment climate in Ukraine, while in H1 2016 the number was 78 percent. Only 9 percent of respondents believe that the investment climate is favorable. Complaints about corruption grew by 5 percentage points in six months.

Ukrgazvydobuvannia plans to invest $1.1 billion in drilling and purchase of new equipment in 2017, Interfax Ukraine reported. The company plans to drill about 100 new wells, overhaul 500 existing wells and step up production. By 2020, it intends to invest $3 billion in upgrades to drilling rigs and hopes to attract third-party contractors to work in its fields.

Ukraine's largest lender, PrivatBank, said Wednesday that reports it will be nationalized were attempts to create panic and destabilize the political situation in the country, according to Reuters. There has been rampant speculation that PrivatBank could be privatized if it does not meet a year-end deadline for Ukrainian banks to reach a capital ratio requirement under an International Monetary Fund bailout program. PrivatBank has been in particular focus because with $6 billion in private deposits, or 36.5 percent of Ukrainian banks' total, it is considered too big to fail.

Since the March launch of the peer-to-peer lending market in Ukraine, lending has reached almost $190 million, Interfax Ukraine reported central bank leader Valeria Gontareva as saying. P2P lending is a way of borrowing between unrelated people without a financial intermediary (a bank, a credit union, etc.).

Ukraine's energy regulator is seeking to cut the wholesale market price of electricity by 10 percent starting Jan. 1, Interfax Ukraine reported. The agency hopes to achieve the price reduction through stable generation and a reduction in subsidies.

Ukraine saw a 2.9 percent rise in farm produce output in the January-November period compared with the same period 2015, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine as reported by Unian.

Ukraine and Ireland discussed possible expansion of trade and economic cooperation particularly with regard to imports of Irish beef, pork, milk and dairy products, Ukrinform reported.

In 2017, Ukraine's revenues from gas transit could exceed gas imports spending for the first time ever, the National Bank of Ukraine said in a report picked up by Interfax Ukraine. The sides also discussed mutual cooperation in veterinary medicine and food safety and the development of bilateral trade.

Naftogaz of Ukraine does not intend to buy natural gas from Russia until March 2017, the company's CEO said Thursday, according to Unian.

Exports of goods from Ukraine in the January-October period decreased 8 percent from the same period in 2015, according to the State Statistics Service and Unian.

For comments and news tips, please email UBJ AM editor David Edwards at david.edwards@theubj.com.