April macro stats; Metinvest reports 1Q12 results; UAH upped on Friday, faces shaky week again

Ukrainian domestic statistics publications last week reported April\'s public debt and labor productivity numbers. (1) Public direct and guaranteed debt was UAH486.6bn, up 0.7% MoM from March, which translates to 36.1% of GDP, the same level as last month, according to our assessments. Direct debt as of end of April 2012 amounted to UAH374.5bn, or 27.8% of GDP, up slightly from 27.7% in March. (2) In monthly labour statistics, April\'s number of hours worked was 138, down 1 hour from the April one year ago. The same situation was observed in the industrial sector, at 136 versus 137 a year ago. In terms of the number of employees, the entire economy (all sectors included) increased 0.5% YoY, but the industrial sector reduced its work force by 1.2% YoY. To calculate labour productivity on a monthly basis, we divide the CPI-adjusted GDP by the total number of hours worked in all sectors of the economy in the last 12-months. This April, labour productivity grew 15.2% YoY from the same period of 2011 (YoY growth was 14.5% in December 2011 and 6.2% in December 2010).
Attached please find the complete report, which includes supporting charts and tables for all comments (PDF file: 11 pages, 1136KB)