•Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has invited British companies to take part in rebuilding Ukrainian roads and developing its transportation network, Interfax Ukraine reported. Omelyan said that Ukraine is extremely interested in establishing European road standards and that international companies' interest in entering the Ukrainian market has risen significantly.

•Oschadbank and the German-Ukrainian Fund signed a deal that will provide the bank with a credit line to finance micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, multiple sources reported. The bank will also receive help in developing products and modernizing the credit process for these types of businesses. The bank has not specified the size of the credit line.

•The State Property Fund is postponing privatization of regional power companies until a pending bill on the electricity market becomes law, Interfax Ukraine reported. The fund is preparing shares in six regional power companies for privatization. Parliament approved the bill on first reading Sept. 22.

•Ukraine's renewable energy market in will amount to $16 billion by 2020, but investors need guarantees if they are to direct their money to opportunities in Ukraine, agency Chairman Serhiy Savchuk said as reported by Ukrinform. Savchuk said potential investors want to see financial stability and “normal regulatory activities.”

•Kyiv's Boryspil International Airport will complete the year with net profit of more than $45 million, Prime Minister Volodomyr Groysman was quoted by Ukrinform as saying. He added that new regional airports have come online in Lviv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Kryvyi Rih and Zhytomyr.

•The shadow vodka market could grow by 15 percentage points to 65 percent in 2017, Ukrvodka said as reported by Interfax Ukraine. The head of the association said the number of poisoning deaths from consumption of fake vodka is on the rise, and he expressed frustration with parliament's decision to boost excise duties by 20 percent instead of the initially discussed 12 percent, adding that government revenues from a series of alcohol tax increases has not met expectations.

•A continuing excess of deaths over births, the result of falling fertility rates and still high adult male mortality rates, and the exodus of many to work abroad means that the population of Ukraine will fall by 20 percent by the mid-2030s, demographers say, Golos reported.

•Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko and vice president of the China Road and Bridge Corp. Du Fei signed an agreement that provides for cooperation in several projects of construction and reconstruction of transportation infrastructure, Ukrinform reported.

•Ukrtelecom is raising the cost of its rate plans for land-line telephone service between 18 and 23 percent starting Jan. 1, making telephony more expensive for businesses, multiple sources reported.

•The government forecast for grain exports from Ukraine in the 2016-17 marketing year (July 2016-June 2017) to a record 41.6 million tons, Agriculture Minister Taras Kutoviy said, as reported by Unian.

•Bank losses in the January-November period fell by 67 percent year over year to $719 million, Unian reported, citing the National Bank of Ukraine.

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