• The International Monetary Fund has revised downwards expectations for growth of the ratio between total external debt to GDP in Ukraine in 2017, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

• The International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have confirmed their forecast for growth of Ukraine's GDP by 2% in 2017, according to the surveys of the institutions published on Thursday.

• Ukraine will appoint a new central bank governor by September, Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk told Reuters on Thurdsay. He would not name who that candidate was, saying it was a decision to be made by the president.

• The National Bank of Ukraine sent the second tranche of its profit for 2016 in the amount of $189 million to the national budget, the central bank has said on its Facebook page.

• Transportation by rail from Ukraine to the European Union member states soared by almost seven times in January-March 2017 year-over-year, to 34,500 passengers, UNIAN reports.

• Ukraine exported 3127 kilo metric tons of corn in March 2017 – the largest volume since December 2013. A total 13.54 million metric tons of corn was shipped abroad over the seven months of the season, UkrAgroConsult reports.

• In January-March of 2017 the export of agricultural and food products from Ukraine totalled $4.6 bln in monetary terms, an increase of $1.3 bln (or, up almost 40%) compared with the 1st quarter last year, the State Statistics Service reports.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected that sunflower harvest in Ukraine in the 2017/18 agricultural year would be 13.5 million metric tons.

• The reforms in Ukraine are even more ambitious than in some developed countries of the Western Europe, said former prime minister of Denmark and ex-NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in an exclusive interview with Ukrinform.

• The members of delegation of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry have discussed economic cooperation and simplification of trade with the economy ministers of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, Ukrinform reported.

For comments and news tips, please email UBJ AM editor Vitalii Dubenskyi at vitalii.dubenskyi@theubj.com