In the month of September, 35,587 new small and medium sized businesses were registered in Ukraine, a three-year-high, Opendatabot said on Oct. 11.
After a lull last year following Russia’s full-scale invasion, the number of these businesses, referred to as "individual entrepreneur" registrations or by their Ukrainian acronym FOP, has steadily increased in 2023.
The previous record since the start of the war was in June 2023, with 31,477 new businesses in this category.
For comparison, 27,959 small and medium-sized businesses opened in September 2021 and 25,176 in Sept. 2020.
The majority are involved in retail trade (12,777), the provision of individual services (3,244), and wholesale trade (2,343).
The majority of registrations are in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, with a combined total of 7,407 new businesses registered. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (3,210) and Lviv Oblast (2,862) followed.
Regions close to the front line saw the lowest activity, 267 registrations were recorded in Kherson Oblast, while only 83 were in Luhansk Oblast.
Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been forced to close due to Russian aggression.
A survey from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in September found that businesses had a positive outlook.
The business activity expectations index (BAEI) score last month was 50.1, marking an increase from August’s result of 49.3. A score of of 50 points is considered neutral.
“The gradual rebound of output, the establishment of new supply routes, weaker growth in the prices of raw materials and energy, improved inflation and exchange rate expectations, and stable domestic demand helped improve respondents’ expectations,” the NBU said.
Dominic Culverwell
