took place against the background of the decline of the world prices for Ukrainian export items. And, vice versa, the revivals of the global conjuncture for raw materials were associated in Ukraine with economic growth, balanced budget and strong foreign exchange market position. In this article, the world commodity market conjuncture is analyzed through the prices for steel, wheat, sunflower oil and nitrogen fertilizers exported by Ukraine. It is stated that the causes of economic, financial and FX crises can vary significantly depending on the type of economy: commodity or industrial one, small or big one, and having or not a free access to international financial markets. It is concluded that, in small commodity based economies, financial, monetary and FX misbalances are not always the initial point of a crisis. In a number of cases they only play a secondary role in the crisis origination. It is stressed that the phases of economic cycle in Ukraine as well as the stance of its finance, budget and exchange rate of the Hryvnia are to a great extent determined by the commodity nature of national production. Meanwhile the high volatility of the latter could be explained by a long-term technological decline. Ukraine is featuring a lagging growth model according to which national GDP rates are lower than those in the most countries with emerging markets. As a result, Ukraine has been helplessly slipping down towards the commodity based periphery of the global economy although, in formal terms, its GDP dynamics may remain positive. It is underscored that a systematic eradication of the above mentioned drawbacks would involve a technological revival, and the development of the manufacturing sector with its shifting to the production of high value added goods. K e y w o r d s : Ukraine, commodity based economy, cycle, world conjuncture, commodity prices, GDP, exchange rate, general government budget.

The most successful fight against COVID-19 is demonstrated by countries with effective state institutions, which have become absolutely critical when confronting SARS-CoV-2: from quarantine restrictions, equipping hospitals and providing financial assistance packages to national economies to developing COVID vaccines, deployment of their production and mass vaccination of the population until the formation of collective immunity. These countries are not only centers of highly adaptable business, but also of first-class research centers and leading pharmaceutical companies that have offered the world effective COVID developments and their mass production. However, the rapid application of this creative potential would be impossible without effective government regulation. After all, the price of a purely market response to SARS-CoV-2 is prohibitively high due to the inevitable loss of time and human lives in the formation of private funds sufficient to begin the development of COVID vaccines, their production, mass vaccination and the emergence of collective immunity. Thus, government regulation has become a key factor in transforming COVID vaccines into the public good. However, due to the different quality of such regulation in different countries, this benefit has signs of “nationality”: the first to receive it are wealthy countries, developers of COVID vaccines and their closest partners, which have a high level of governance. Countries deprived of such institutional advantages have found themselves trapped by COVID-19 in the already narrow corridor of their financial capabilities. Moreover, the way out of this trap is often associated with political demands, the nature of which quite often does not apply to SARS-CoV-2 or national conditions for overcoming it.

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The article considers financial aspects of the implementation of the People's Republic of China's international initiative of "One Belt, One Way". China's impressive economic success over the last 30 years has shown how it grew into a major global exporter and investor, gaining the second-country status in terms of national GDP and imports. These changes took place against the backdrop of rapid economic growth and deep structural reforms, which were accompanied by increased output and exports of high value-added products. Under these conditions, the country naturally prefers to reorient the global economic system in such a way that it is more conducive to China's economic, financial and political interests. A key practical tool for implementing such a plan is the One Belt, One Way initiative, which is to ensure simultaneous access to (a) Western technologies, (b) global raw materials markets, (c) infrastructure capacities that should maximize the deliveries of Chinese produce to all corners of the world economy. However, such an ambitious plan requires an extraordinary amount of financial resources. Despite China's considerable international reserves (over $3 trillion), its volume is still insufficient to cope with such a task. Moreover, the country itself needs further assimilation of foreign investment and technology due to the relatively low level of capital intensity of its workforce. China will be able to solve this dilemma if it manages to create a system of "counter investment", that is, attraction and absorption of foreign investments from more technologically developed countries, which are denominated in the main reserve currencies, and simultaneously realize their own foreign investments in Yuan, offering their users deliveries of own products of slightly lower technological complexity than those received from foreign investors. This publication was prepared based on the presentation of "The Belt and Road Initiative - A New Shape of Globalization?" presented at the Institute of World Economics and Policy (IWEP) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in May 2019 as part of the International Economic and Economic Conference on "Economic and Trade Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative: Retrospect and Prospect".

Given the ambiguity and importance of the issues of Ukraine’s cooperation with the IMF, the developments of leading scientists on the topic are very relevant. It is these problems that the International scientific seminar, which was held at the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine on October 10, 2018, was devoted to. The positions of some scientists are published in this issue of the journal.