The real estate market has frozen in the new year. The rules for taxing the purchase and sale of apartments, houses, and dachas have changed. On January 1, certain provisions of the law "On Personal Income Tax" came into force.

The average sale price of Ukrainian oil at the auction of the Ukrainian Interbank Currency Exchange on Wednesday amounted to 1,359.72 UAH per tonne, which is 19%, or 319.63 UAH, more compared to the previous auction held on August 27, 2004.

In December 2004, Ukraine's direct external debt decreased by 0.05%, or by 4.1 million dollars, amounting to 8,807.8 million dollars as of December 31. This is reported by "Ukrainian News". \n \nAccording to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, Ukraine's direct domestic debt in December 2004 decreased by 1.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a resolution increasing the rent payment for main oil transportation by 30% - from $0.685 to $0.89 per ton. This is reported by OJSC "AK "Transneft". In addition, the rent payment period has been extended to 30 calendar days, reports "DerzhZovnishInform".

Revenues of the general fund of the state budget of Ukraine for the period from January 1 to 21 amounted to 1.43 billion UAH, or 31.5% of the plan for this month. This is reported by "Podrobnosti" with reference to an informed source in the government.

In a year, all conditions will be created in Ukraine for an influx of investment into the economy. This was stated by President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, «proUA» was informed by the press service of the head of state.

In 2005, price growth in the primary housing market in Ukraine will reach 15%, and in the secondary market – 15-25%. This forecast was made during today's press conference by the president of the Association of Real Estate Specialists, Oleksandr Bondarenko, reports UNIAN.

Analysis of appeals to the mayor's hotline allows us to assert that Lutsk has a transport problem, in particular with minibuses.

Joint projects of Ukrainian and Chinese businessmen, initiated under the auspices of the "Ukraine–China" society, which has also been operating in Lutsk since October 2003.

In 2005, the State Committee for Material Reserve plans to carry out purchases of goods for the state reserve worth 1.5 billion hryvnias. This was stated to journalists by the head of the State Reserve, Mykola Pesotskyi, reports "Ukrainian News". \n \n"This year, purchases will be made worth 1.