ST. PETERSBURG, Nov. 19 – Ukraine's real gross domestic product in January-October 2013 decreased by 0.6%, but the government hopes that there will still be slight growth in GDP over the full 12 months of this year, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Nov. 20 - Ukraine lost approximately 25% of its trade with the CIS countries this year and these are considerable economic losses for the country, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.

KIEV, Nov. 21 - Ukraine imported 4.389 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia and Europe in September, paying a total of $1.875 billion, the State Statistics Service said.

KIEV, Nov. 21 – The Antimonopoly Committee has permitted Guris Insaat ve Muhendislik A.S. (Turkey) to acquire over 50% of the shares in the project on the construction of Western-Crimean wind power plant (Saky and Chornomorsky districts in Crimea, the capacity of 250 MW), the committee said on its Web site.

KIEV, Nov. 21 – The parliamentary committee for transport and communications, jointly with the Infrastructure Ministry, has proposed that a single excise duty on fuel of EUR 198 per ton be set, committee chairman Borys Kolesnikov said in Kiev at a meeting of the committee.

KIEV, Nov. 19 – The Ukrainian weather center expects to obtain a $52 million loan from the World Bank to upgrade its service, said Mykola Kulbida, the director of the center.

KIEV, Nov. 19 – The second An-225 Mriya transport aircraft could be ready for use in two or three years, according to Dmytro Kiva, general designer and CEO of Antonov state enterprise.

KIEV, Nov. 20 – The Energy and Coal Industry Ministry has drawn up a draft procedure for exports of commodity natural gas and has posted it on its official Web site.

According to the document, Naftogaz Ukrayiny and its subsidiaries will annually submit their proposals on the volumes of gas exports from the country to the government.

KIEV, Nov. 21 – Former Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk, who won a seat in Parliament on the election list of Vitali Klitschko's UDAR Party, has criticized the policy of the National Bank of Ukraine and said it could result in serious shocks for the foreign exchange market and a deep devaluation of the national currency.

KIEV, Nov. 21 – State-run Chornomornaftogaz (Simferopol, Crimea) on November 20 welded the final join of the 83-kilometer underwater gas pipeline linking the BK-1 platform of the Odeske gas field and the MSP-4 platform of the Holitsynske gas condensate field.