FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL

Posted On

17
November
2021

Ukraine's GDP grows by 2% in Jan-Sept – head of NBU Council

KYIV. Nov 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s GDP in January-September 2021 grew by 2% compared to the same period last year, Head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Bohdan Danylyshyn has said.

"In the nine months ending September 30, 2021, Ukraine’s GDP grew by 2% year-over-year, which is not enough to compensate for the decline in economic activity in 2020 (4.0% down per year)," he wrote on Facebook.

Danylyshyn said that Ukraine’s real GDP in the third quarter grew by 1.4% quarter-over-quarter (taking into account the seasonal factor), and it rose by 2.4% year-over-year.

"Such rates of economic recovery in the country in the third quarter are significantly lower than the October forecast of the National Bank (4% year-over-year) and similar indicators of both developed economies and economies of developing countries of Central and Eastern Europe," the head of the NBU Council said.

Danylyshyn added that the excessive strengthening of the hryvnia exchange rate to UAH 26.11/$1 [as of November 17, the hryvnia exchange rate on the interbank market is UAH 26.50/$1] worsens the competitiveness of Ukrainian producers (except for exporters of raw materials) in international markets and leads to the loss of sales markets by them, and also leads to losses of the state budget due to the lack of income from taxes and fees controlled by the Customs Service.

He said that the specified strengthening, which was about 8% since the beginning of the year, was not due to fundamental factors (such as an increase in labor productivity, an increase in real investment in the economy), but was the result of situational factors, such as high prices for raw materials in the world markets, reduced energy purchases, or foreign currency borrowing by state-owned companies to meet their debt obligations.