The Centre for Innovations Development together with the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office and the National Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Project Diia.Business analysed data on new business registration in Ukraine two months after the start of a full-scale war, with the breakdown by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, economic activities and regions.

The analysis showed that Ukrainians believe in victory and adapt quickly. In particular, during the two months of the war, the number of newly registered businesses has already approached 50% of the similar pre-war period of April 2021. Moreover, adaptation to the war is faster than to the COVID-19 pandemic: 29% more new businesses have already been registered compared to the corresponding period of April 2020. Statistical indicators were prepared on the basis of data by Economic Profile and Vkursi.

The economy across the country has been gradually reviving: new companies and individual entrepreneurs are being registered, and businesses are returning to work in the areas where it is possible. In fact, the registration of new businesses resumed on 22 and 23 March, when the first individual entrepreneurs, LLCs and one utility company were registered. Prior to that, only charitable foundations and NGOs had been actively registered. In total, during the two months of the war, in the period from 24 February to 24 April 2022, 14,420 new businesses were registered in Ukraine. These are 12,255 individual entrepreneurs and 2,165 legal entities, including 78% charitable foundations and NGOs.

Note: Absolute figures do not accurately reflect the dramatic changes in the business climate of the regions. A separate analyst will focus on this issue.

 

 

It should be noted that among 2,165 legal entities registered in the period from 24 February 2022 to 24 April 2022, 78% are charitable foundations, NGOs and local self-government departments. 22% or 480 of newly registered legal entities in Ukraine are for-profit. The most numerous are the following activities:

• Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oilseeds: 47
• Non-specialised wholesale trade: 38
• Computer programming: 27
• Construction of residential and non-residential buildings: 21
• Wholesale of grain, unmanufactured tobacco, seeds and animal feeds: 18

Regions where the most for-profit companies were registered:

• Kyiv: 93
• Lviv region: 54
• Dnipropetrovsk region: 41
• Ivano-Frankivsk region: 35
• Khmelnytskyi region: 33
• Odesa region: 27

 

 

Registration of new for-profit companies and individual entrepreneurs resumed on 22 and 23 March 2022, i.e. it has been going on for 1 month and 1 day. One utility company (specialising in agriculture according to the Classifier of economic activities (KVED)) was registered in the Volyn region and two individual entrepreneurs specialising in IT and consulting were registered in the Lviv region. Already on 23 March 2022, a legal entity (specialising in agriculture according to KVED) was registered in the Lviv region. Also on 22 March and 23 March 2022, the first 2 and 8 individual entrepreneurs, respectively, were registered in the Lviv and Ternopil regions, and one was registered in Buchach district of the Kyiv region. They specialise in IT, trade, consulting and construction.

In total, during 2 months of the full-scale war, 14,420 new business entities were registered, including 85% or 12,255 individual entrepreneurs. This was greatly facilitated by the tax benefits for individual entrepreneurs approved in March and the renewal of the online registration in Diia (from 28 March 2022). As a result, the registration of individual entrepreneurs, including those who are likely IDPs from enemy-attacked areas but whose registered address remains at the place of registration in the Unified State Demographic Register, has sharply revived.