• Inflation cooled in October as prices rose by 1.2%, a lower rate, the State Statistics Service said Wednesday. According to Gosstat, in annual terms inflation in October slowed to 14.6%, from 16.4% in September.

• Two thirds of the 408 complaints to Ukraine’s Business Ombudsman Council in the most recent quarter were against the State Fiscal Service, the agency responsible for taxes and customs. So far the Ombudsman has received 909 complaints this year, about 20 percent more than during the first three quarters of last year. Ombudsman officials believe the rising number reflects greater business awareness and confidence in their work.

• Looking beyond 3% economic growth forecasts for next year, Prime Minister Groysman said the country should grow at double that rate in coming years. Calling for growth of 5 to 7%, he said at a government meeting: “We need to create conditions under which entrepreneurs develop, work, and make our country more prosperous.”

• With 97% of the sunflower crop harvested, yields are down 11%, to almost 2 tons per hectare, the Agrarian Ministry reports. Sunflower has displaced wheat as Ukraine’s most widely planted crop. Concorde Capital’s Andriy Perederey writes: “The lower sunflower harvest will intensify competition among seed crushers, which may result in reduced profitability of their oil production.”

• Chris Singh, head of Holtec International, the American nuclear construction company, met Wednesday with Igor Rainin, head of the Presidential Administration. Holtec is working building spent nuclear fuel storage facilities for the Chernobyl, Khmelnytsky, Rivne and South Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

• McDonald's opened a new restaurant Tuesday near the Minsk Metro station in Kiev, part of a $10 million investment renovation and expansion campaign this year. Designed in wood and stone, the new McDonald’s is located in the Obolon Residences complex. The restaurant has a summer terrace, three McDrive windows and indoor seating for 102. The restaurant keeps the hours of the nearby Metro station: from 6 a.m. to midnight.

• An IMF technical mission arrives today in Kyiv for a weeklong visit. The team will hold technical discussions on draft 2018 state budget, Goesta Ljungman, IMF resident representative in Kiev, said in a statement. The National Bank of Ukraine hopes to receive a $2 billion tranche from the IMF in Q1 2018. Timothy Ash writes: “Don't get too excited about this…[I am] not seeing any real progress yet on issues which are still blocking completion of the Fourth Review including energy price hikes and the pension reforms.”

• The Rada has endorsed Ukraine borrowing EUR 120 million from the European Investment Bank to improve the energy efficiency of university buildings. Separately, the Cabinet of Ministers approved borrowing a total of EUR 320 million, split evenly between the EIB and the EBRD, for expansion of the Kharkiv metro. By adding two new stations, the project is to increase annual passenger flow by 10%, or 25 million riders.

• Business associations are appealing to the Rada and President Poroshenko to adopt three free market economic bills: curbing powers of the financial police, replacing the profit tax on withdrawn capital, on blocking tax invoices. Valeriy Pekar, founder of the New Country Civic Platform, told Ukrinform: “This year's economic reforms have almost disappeared from the agenda of the parliament, the government and the Presidential Administration, displaced by social and political issues. Meanwhile the economic crisis continues.”

• The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the National Waste Management Strategy, a blueprint for recycling through 2030. Ostap Semerak, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, said: "Every year in Ukraine about 10 tons of waste is generated per one inhabitant in our country against 5 tons generated in the EU countries." He said only 30% of industrial waste and 4% of household waste are recycled. In a call for foreign investment and knowhow, Prime Minister Groysman said: "It is very important that we begin to create modern garbage recycling complexes."

• Diplomatic ties with Russia would be broken under a draft law prepared by Ivan Vinnyk, a lawmaker from President Poroshenko's party. Vinnyk told RFE/RL Wednesday: "This does not mean that we will not be able to support a certain amount of trade relations if necessary, [or] that Ukrainians will not be able to travel to Russia." Trains between Russia and Ukraine carry hundreds of thousands of passengers yearly. Through August, Russia is Ukraine’s largest single nation trading partner, accounting for 10% of Ukraine’s foreign trade.

• With Australia trade and tourism ties growing, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has appointed Yaroslav Duma as Ukraine's first honorary consul in Sydney, Ukrinform reports. Duma, former head of the Ukrainian community in Sydney, is a private entrepreneur, a member of the Rotary Club of Sydney, and a specialist in law and finance. The Australian-Ukrainian community is about 40,000.

• Facing a surge of Ukrainian labor migrants posing as asylum seekers, Israel’s Population, Immigration, and Border Authority has announced it will “summarily reject” refugee asylum applications from Ukrainians, except from separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Last year, the Authority refused entry to about 5,700 Ukrainians, about 2% percent of the annual visa-free tourist flow. According to a report by a nonprofit, Hotline for Refuges and Migrants, Ukrainian ‘visa agencies’ offering ‘work opportunities’ in Israel helped 6,000 Ukrainian tourists apply for asylum in Israel in the first half of this year – nearly equal to all of 2016.

• Transparency International launched a provocative anti-bribery advertising campaign last month where a a businessman admits he “gives because he is coerced into it,” students “give because it’s become a habit,” and a patient “gives to survive.” An attention getter, the use of “give” without a direct object in Ukrainian has the same sexual connotation as “put out” in American slang.

• The IT Ukraine Association will hold the Software Development Forum tomorrow at the Hilton Kyiv. Opening at 10 am, the daylong Forum is expected to draw 300 participants and 50 speakers from government, Ukrainian and international business to discuss the key industry issued: global competition, IT’s impact on Ukraine’s economy, and IT-education for young generation.

UBJ a.m. is reported by UBJ Editor in Chief James Brooke, a former New York Times foreign correspondent and Bloomberg Moscow bureau chief. For comments and story tips, Brooke is reachable at james.brooke@theubj.com