• To make Ukraine more business friendly, President Petro Poroshenko challenged ministers and lawmakers Monday to make changes needed to boost Ukraine at least 30 points in the World Bank's annual global Doing Business rankings. Since 2012, Ukraine has jumped from 152nd to 80th place.

• The number of Ukrainian migrant workers in Poland has doubled, Ekonomicheskaya Pravda reported, citing research by the National Bank of Poland. The average age of today's group is about 33, 10 years younger than the average age of the previous wave.

• International ratings agency Fitch said it expects economic growth in Ukraine to be 2.5 percent in 2017 and 3 percent in 2018, various sources reported.

• Over the past two years, Ukraine has increased its gold and forex reserves by more than $10 billion, President Petro Poroshenko said, as reported by several news outlets.

• The Infrastructure Ministry confirmed that it is in talks with major budget airline Ryanair, according to Interfax Ukraine. Minister Yevhen Kravtsov said Ryanair is expanding its route network and is interested in flying to Ukraine.

• Russia's Economic Development Ministry is backing a bill that would ban money transfers involving foreign payment systems from Russia to Ukraine, Novoe Vremya reported. The bill was introduced to the Duma in November by United Russia deputy Vladislav Reznik.

• The minimum monthly wage in Ukraine could be raised again, this time to UAH 7,000 ($268) by the end of 2017, Ukrinform reported. Prime Minister Volodomyr Groysman expressed hope an increase in the minimum wage will spur consumer spending.

• Sixa, a Ukrainian startup, raised $3.5 million from three investment companies, Interfax Ukraine reported. The company developed an app for access to a high-performance virtual computer in the cloud.

• Ukrainian startup Mevics attracted $500,000 in investment from British company UBTower, ain.ua reported.

• Television provider Triolan, faced with the loss of its ability to offer Ukrainian channels, now agrees to start paying for them, according to Novoe Vremya. That will result in a monthly subscriber fee.

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