[09.08.03]

The U.S. Armed Forces Central Command reported (August 12) that a shot fired from a tank at a Baghdad hotel Palestine on April 8 this year, which resulted in the death of Ukrainian journalist Taras Protsyuk, was in self-defense and in complete conformity with the rules of combat actions. This conclusion was subjected to harsh criticism by General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists Aidan White. The reaction of Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was more reserved, however the Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the Pentagon should continue the investigation of the incident "Accepting the argumentation related to complexity of the conditions and circumstances under which the U.S. military acted the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine at the same time believes that the investigations should be continued to obtain more specific results... We believe that even under combat conditions everyone should be personally responsible for his actions, especially so, when a human life as the highest value is at stake", the comment of the Foreign Ministry spokesman says.

Protsyuk had the wife and the 8-year-old son.

Four columns of Ukrainian peacekeepers set out from Kuwait to Iraq on August 11-15. The peacekeepers will start their service on September 1 when their acclimatization is over.

General Prosecutor of Ukraine Svyatoslav Piskun made a report on measures to counteract terrorism at the 8th annual conference of the International Associations of Prosecutors in Washington (August 13).

On August 4 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Anatoly Zlenko and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual (who some days ago completed his mission) signed an inter-government agreement on mutual secret information security in the field of defense.

In the Persian Gulf the British HMS Sutherland intercepted the ship NavStar-1 which was illegally taking more than 1,000 tons of diesel fuel from Iraq. The tanker belonged to a company from the United Arab Emirates and as they said had a crew which consisted of Ukrainians.

On August 10-13 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Anatoly Zlenko visited India.

Commentary. The present visit perhaps indicates a thaw in relations between Ukraine and India, which were quite chilly since before Ukraine considered Pakistan as its main partner in the region. The visit's goals were mainly economical.

U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan expressed gratitude to President Leonid Kucham for his intention to visit New York to take part in general debates at the 58th session of the U.N. General Assembly in September.

On August 15 vice-premier-ministers of 4 countries (Russia, Ukraine, Bielorus & Kazakstan) met in Astana (Kazakstan). They signed the project of agreement about Mutual Economic Space of 4 countries. It would be open for other countries, who will want to join it.

As insisted Ukraine, MES will be formed by a number of steps, on different velocity for members.

Ukraine keeps up high pace of economic growth and a stable financial situation

The real GDP in Ukraine for January-July increased by 5.1% compared with July last year. The growth rates of economy remain sufficiently high although July registered substantial decline in the GDP – by 5.6% when compared with July last year.

The Ministry of Economy links it to a complicated situation in agriculture.

In industry the output growth rates have increased.

In January-July the increase in industrial output amounted to 13.8% and in July by July this increase was 21.1%. When compared with June this year the industrial production increased by 5.4%.

Engineering is the leader of the industrial growth – production volumes over 7 months increased by 30.7% compared with a similar period last year, for July – by 44.5% compared with July last year.

Among the most fast-growing industrial sectors are chemistry and petrochemistry (production growth is 15.1 up compared with 7 months of 2002).

The fast growth was registered also in construction. The volumes of construction works grew by 23% compared with January-July of 2002.

The situation in the budget sector is also stable. The total sum of revenues to the state budget over the first half-year exceeded a similar indicator for the last year by 18.4%.

Ukraine announced that it would fully repay all its foreign debt commitments in September 2003 on which fall its most sizeable payments for the second half of the year. The total amount of payments in this months will be equivalent to USD 450 million.

On the whole, despite the severe situation in agriculture the economic situation in the country remains stable.

Forecast for the development of Ukraine's economy in 2004

On August 15 the Ministry of Finances submitted to the government its program of budget generation. The main indicators of the budget for the forthcoming year have already been worked out and announced by Minister of Economy Valeriy Khoroshkovsky: inflation is planned at the level of 6.3%, the GDP growth – at the level of 4.8% given the nominal GDP of UAH 275 million, the average annual hryvnia-to-dollar exchange rate as UAH 5.42 per 1 dollar. In this case the GDP growth in the current year should be 4.7% at inflation of 7.2% and the hryvnia-dollar exchange rate of 5.39 per 1 dollar.

Valeriy Khoroshkovsky noted that they deal with the so-called "conservative scenario", i.e. with the indicators, which the government without any risk may include into the budget. In addition, there is also a "target scenario" which the government will try to implement.

According to this scenario the GDP growth is expected at the level of 8% and a 7.2% inflation at the same hryvnia exchange rate.