Daily Insight-Industrial production slows in April; President eyes zero-deficit budget; agri stocks news; bond auction results

Ukraine\'s President Viktor Yanukovych made a phenomenal declaration yesterday that Ukraine will finish 2011 with a zero deficit of the state budget, instead of a deficit of 3.5% that has so far been planned. He added that he was 100% sure that this will happen, because of the positive dynamics in the fiscal sphere that could be seen this year. He also mentioned that the government has been cutting the deficit of the State Pension Fund by 12% each month. This is a rather unexpected and hopeful estimate, given that the budget plan for 2011 suggests that the state budget deficit would have reached UAH38.8bn (US$4.85bn) by the year-end. The results from 4M11 showed that the budget fulfillment is staying at a better-than expected level this year: the state budget revenue almost reached its planned level, while the deficit of the state budget stayed at merely UAH903m (US$113m) in 1Q11. Moreover, the government is monitoring the situation in the budget performance on a day-to-day basis, so the above statement must have been made taking into account the state budget dynamics for the first two weeks of May as well.