Eagle-eyed reader Mattia Nelles notes that a zero was missing from the population of Kryvyi Rih as posted in yesterday’s UBN. Ukraine’s seventh largest city, Kryvyi Rih, hometown of President Zelenskiy, has an urban population of 620,000 and a metro region population of 1,000,000. This population density justifies the government’s $35 million investment in the city’s airport and launching of direct flights this week by Windrose between Kyiv Boryspil and Kryvyi Rih. With Best Regards, Jim Brooke

, compared to January-May period last year, reports the Center for Transportation Strategies. The nearly 2.5 million-passenger flow for the period was split nearly evenly between charter and regular travelers. Passengers on regular flights were down by one third and transfer passengers were down by 80%. Overall, traffic was down by only 1% compared to the same five-month period last year.

Almost three quarters of the low cost airline’s 209,924 passengers flew on charter flights, largely to Egypt and Turkey, the airline reports. Ukraine will provide almost 20% of the 8 million tourists expected to visit Egypt this year, Egyptian ambassador Ayman Ahmed Mokhtar Elgammal tells Interfax-Ukraine.

Kyiv residents can register online for free vaccinations on weekends at the International Exhibition Center 15A Brovarskyi Avenue using the Diia app and Helsi.me, an online service for booking doctor appointments. So far, 1.2 million Ukrainians have received their first vaccine dose, and 152,142 have received both doses. On Monday, President Biden promised President Zelenskiy to deliver 900,000 vaccine doses to Ukraine.

the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday promoted Ukraine to ‘Level 3’ – the same level as the United States. Ukraine now recognizes English language vaccination certificates as valid for entry into the country.

,’ the Health Ministry said yesterday. Restrictions have been eased to allow restaurants to serve indoors all night and cinemas and theaters to operate at two thirds capacity.

, Radomyr Tsurkan, managing partner of CBRE Ukraine, predicted last week in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. “The collapse of the offices that scared everyone at the start of the pandemic did not take place,” he said. “According to a study conducted by CBRE in 2020, 73% of those surveyed want to return to the office and have a hybrid work format.” This year, 12 business centers with a total area of 207,000 square meters are to open in Kyiv.

compared to January-March 2020, the State Statistics Service reports. Of the 2.3 million square meters, 70% was in urban areas. Kyiv city accounted for 6%, or 145,000 square meters.

Ukraine’s Supreme Court refused to recognize a decision by Stockholm’s Arbitration Institute to award Dmytro Firtash’s Ostchem over $300 million from state-owned Odesa Port Plant. “This is a final decision that is not subject to appeal,” Dmytro Sennychenko, head of the State Property Fund, told Interfax-Ukraine yesterday. Looking ahead to a sale of the chemical producer through auction, he said: “This will help expand the pool of potential buyers and dramatically increase the value of the asset.”

, Prime Minister Shmygal announced yesterday at a Cabinet meeting. Growth picked up speed from a 12% increase registered for January-March, compared to the same period last year, In 2020, 41% of Ukraine’s foreign trade was with the EU bloc of 28 countries.

this current investment accounts for almost 10% of the bonds in circulation. Ministry officials say that foreign investment contributed to the sharp decrease in weighted average yield on hryvnia bonds – from 18.7% in January-May 2019 to 11.2% in January-May 2021.

the share of public debt in national currency has increased to 39%, and 5-year bonds have won acceptance, the Finance Ministry reports. In a press conference last week with representatives of the Luxembourg-based international depository, Ministry officials said external investors now hold UAH 98.3 billion, or $3.6 billion, in Ukraine government bonds.

ICU has reported. “Last week foreign investors purchased UAH 2bn [$74 million] of new bills in addition to reinvesting funds they received from redemptions,” the investment group wrote of last week’s auction. Taras Kotovych, Senior Financial Analyst for ICU has calculated that international investors recently bought UAH 3-4 billion, an inflow that strengthened the exchange rate. Yesterday, one dollar was fetching UAH 27.08.

. Hryvnia rates were virtually unchanged Tuesday: 6 months – 9%; 14 months – 11.2%; 18 months – 11.3%; 2-year – 12.05%; and 3-year – 12.3% per annum. The novelty was a 5-year bond, which settled at 12.59%. One-year dollar denominated bonds sold for 3.7%, garnering $182 million, the Ministry reports on Facebook.

the National Bank of Ukraine is expected to increase interest rates at its next board meeting, on June 17. The central bank had forecast inflation this year at 8%.

, the State Statistics Service reports. This is almost double last year’s inflation rate of 5%. Last month, the biggest yoy increases were: natural gas +162%; sunflower oil +75%; and sugar +67%. The biggest drops were:  vegetables -13%; shoes – 4%; and clothes -3.6%.