LONDON, April 19 – Ukraine will not default on its debt, the country’s finance minister said on Thursday, adding that the government would be able to meet all its funding obligations in a year of heavy external refinancing needs.

KIEV, April 19 – The rise in the credit portfolio at Ukrainian banks in 2011 will be around 10%, and in 2012 it could accelerate to 15-20%, Moody's Investors Service said.

KIEV, April 19 - Ukraine has signed an agreement with the Export-Import Bank of China on a $2 billion loan for the construction of infrastructure objects in Kiev region.

KIEV, April 19 - Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, has paid the highest price for a UK residence, buying an apartment in the One Hyde Park development in Knightsbridge, The Guardian reported Tuesday.

YALTA, April 18 – Bad assets of the Ukrainian banking system total 15% of total assets, Ihor Sorkin, the deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, said.

KIEV, April 18 – The expectations of companies for business activity in the next three to 12 months have improved, according to a quarterly poll of CEOs released by the National Bank of Ukraine.

KIEV, April 19 - Consumer confidence in Ukraine worsened in March, along with a rise in inflation expectations, according to a GfK Ukraine survey.

"In the first spring month of 2011, the consumer confidence index continued falling - by 6.3 notches, to 61.8. The fall in consumer confidence was mainly linked to the worsening of economic expectations," the company said.

KIEV, April 16 – Four companies are interested in Zaporizhia Steel Mill OJSC Zaporizhstal: Arcelor Mittal, POSCO (South Korea), Russia's Severstal and Ukraine's Metinvest Group, a well-informed source told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, April 19 – The European Union has presented modern equipment for identifying residues of veterinary preparations in food products to the Lviv regional state laboratory of veterinary medicine and the state research institute of veterinary preparations and feed additives.

KIEV, April 19 - The government of Ukraine wants to get a signed addition from Russia to the January 19, 2009 contract concerning Gazprom guarantees to transit at least 110 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas through Ukraine's pipelines, and a clarification of real transit-gas volume for this year, citing what it sees as non-fulfillment on Gazprom's part.