NEW YORK. June 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian economy will start recovering as of the second half of the current year, according to Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeriya Gontareva.
“We believe that the growth will start in the second half of the year, perhaps as early as this quarter,” she said during a video conference at the Ukrainian Investment Day event organized by Concorde Capital in New York on June 19.
The situation remained stable on the financial market in the past four months, and deposits have started coming back to the banking system, including due to decent interest rates offered by the NBU on its deposit certificates, she said.
Most of Ukraine’s largest banks have already fulfilled their capital increase targets set until July 1, 2015 after last year’s stress tests, she added.
“However, the stabilization won’t be sustainable without GDP growth,” she underlined.
She acknowledged that one of the means to achieve the stability on the market were “draconian” administrative restrictions.
“We’ve agreed with the International Monetary Fund a gradual plan, a road map of how we will be lifting them,” she said.
She also said that targeting inflation is a priority for the central bank. “Right now this year we have a monetary regime of money supply, but our main idea is, of course, inflation targeting, “she said.
At the same time, she said, this transition is possible only under certain conditions, namely, the stable situation in the country. “But we still believe that, as it is envisaged in our EFF [Extended Fund Facility] program, in 12 months we will start to do our inflation targeting, and right now we are preparing instruments for this inflation targeting,” she added.
