BUSINESS ACTIVITY OF UKRAINIAN ENTERPRISES: LEVELS AND MAIN FACTORS OF INFLUENCE

Stability of operation and development of enterprises to a large extent is due to their business activity, which depends on the breadth of markets for product sales, business reputation, level of resource efficiency, active innovation policy, etc. The quality and correctness of its analysis play a decisive role in making decisions on increasing business activity; accordingly, the relevance of improving its methodology is increasing. Business activity research is carried out at the rates of growth of such general indicators of economic activity: the volume of assets (amount of capital invested in the activity of the enterprise), the volume of sold products (goods, works, services), net profit. One of the indicators of business activity of enterprises is a certain tendency to increase the general indicators of their economic activity. Thus, a steady trend towards an increase in the rates indicates a high level of business activity; unstable dynamics of the rates – average level; steady negative tendency to decrease the rates – low level. It is advisable to analyze such business activity not only for a certain enterprise, but also for Ukraine's economy, its sectors or activities. Analysis of growth rates of the volume of sold products (goods, works, services), assets and net profit showed that trends of these indicators for 2009–2016 coincide for the economy of Ukraine, one of its most important sectors – industry and mechanical engineering as an industry. It is established that dynamics of such general indicators has a wave-like character: the decline in 2009, the growth in 2010–2011, the decline in 2012–2014 and the gradual growth since 2015. Dynamics research of the volume of sold products (goods, works, services) and assets showed that one of the reasons for the low growth rates of sales is the accumulation of technological backwardness and outdated production capacity (over the last 15 years, the level of fixed assets has increased from 43,7 % in 2001 to 83,5 % in 2015). Analysis of financial results of enterprises showed a negative tendency, in particular, the number of unprofitable enterprises is decreasing, but their amount of losses significantly exceeds the profits of profitable enterprises (by the results of 2015 – by 2.1 times, and in 2014 – almost 4 times). Research of the ratio of growth rates for general indicators of economic activity of Ukrainian enterprises made it possible to determine fluctuations in the level of business activity during 2009–2015 and the reasons for deviations from the optimal ratio. It can be noted that level of business activity both for Ukrainian economy and machine building can be considered lower than average, and for industry – the average.