1. Less than a year after the start of the full-scale war, Ukrainian companies began to give up tax relief and return to paying VAT on their own. As of the beginning of March, three and a half thousand businesses have already returned to the general taxation system.

2. The European Commission announced two tenders for Ukrainian entrepreneurs – for 7.5 million euros. The first will provide financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises affected by the war in the form of vouchers for access to services and participation in trade fairs in the EU. The second will enable new Ukrainian entrepreneurs to gain experience in doing business in other European countries.

3. From his own experience, the director of Start Global, Dmytro Shvets, identified five mistakes that beginning exporters make: there is ambition – there is no readiness; improper and insufficient assessment of the selected market; unsystematic expansion on it; unreasonable trust in possible partners; lack of strategic consensus.

4. The Ministry of Economy on inflation: “Provided there is no destruction of critical infrastructure in threatening volumes, it is likely that in the near future, relatively restrained rates of inflation will be maintained, but with their expected increase, caused primarily by the expansion of consumer demand in conditions of gradual stabilization of the economy.”

5. Challenges related to the war, as well as difficulties in the tax field, force Ukrainian businesses to increasingly look to Europe. And if large companies only extend their business to the European market, smaller firms transfer production to the EU entirely. Already now, the number of companies relocated abroad is three times higher than domestic relocation.

6. Ukrainian exporters of furniture to Asian countries should take into account the fact that now Russian furniture makers have rushed there, having lost their sales markets in Europe. Although statistics still show that the Asian region has not compensated them for the loss of EU markets. That’s why they increased their furniture expansion to all CIS countries.

7. Trend expert Catherine de Loew, in cooperation with the German Furniture Association, developed a trend for German interiors for the near future. As for furniture, it should be made of natural materials and with great attention to detail. Organic shapes and noble colours are also in trend.

8. The Scandinavian trading company “JYSK”, without relaxing its attention to the safety of employees and customers, intends to continue working in Ukraine, modernizing existing stores and opening new ones. At the beginning of the year, this retailer had 83 stores in different regions of Ukraine, which mainly sell furniture.

9. The Swedish concern “IKEA” will use only board materials for the production of its furniture, primarily chipboard, with the use of environmentally friendly glues, so as not to be involved in environmental pollution. This will contribute to IKEA’s goal to completely switch to using only renewable and recyclable materials by 2030.

10. In February, a study was conducted in the USA, which showed that 48% of businesses there are looking for ways to replace employees with the help of, in particular, the chatbot “ChatGPT”, which in seconds creates any text, article structure and answers questions in detail. Artificial intelligence can be helpful in studying customer loyalty and interaction with them, as well as in optimizing production processes.