Ukraine has entered the crisis in better macroeconomic condition than in previous crises due to prudent macroeconomic management over the past several years, and activity in Ukraine, the largest economy in the subregion, is projected to shrink in 2020, by 5.5%, the World Bank has said.
The decline in GDP in January-August 2020 will amount to 5.8%, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine expects in the review of economic activity in August.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has improved its assessment of the decline of Ukraine’s GDP in 2020 to 7.2% from 8.2% in the June forecast.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said that the GDP forecast for 2020 has remained unchanged at 6% and the expectations regarding its growth next year were improved from 4% (in July forecast) to 4.2%, the NBU said on its website on Thursday.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has improved the assessment of the decline in the gross domestic product of Ukraine (GDP) to 6.2% in July-September 2020 from 7.4% (in July’s forecast), according to an inflation report posted on the regulator’s website on Thursday night.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) predicts a deficit of the public administration sector in 2020 at 6.5%, in 2021 at 4% of GDP and in 2022 at 3% of GDP, according to the central bank’s inflation report posted on its website on Thursday night.
The Board of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has decided to leave its key policy rate unchanged at 6%, according to a posting on the website of the central bank on Thursday.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has improved its inflation forecast for 2020 from 4.7% (in the July forecast) to 4.1%, while worsened it for the next year from 5.5% to 6.5%.
The volume of exports of goods in September amounted to $4.19 billion, which is 2.87% higher than in September 2019, but 0.77% less than in August, the State Customs Service has reported.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-August 2020 decreased 59.4% compared to January-August 2019, to $2.399 billion from $5.915 billion, the State Statistics Service reported on Thursday.
Consumer prices in Ukraine in September 2020 increased 0.5% after a decrease of 0.2% in August and 0.6% in July and an increase of 0.2% in June, 0.3% in May and 0.8% in April and March, the State Statistics Service reported on Friday.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has improved its inflation forecast for 2020 from 4.7% (in the July forecast) to 4.1%, while worsened it for the next year from 5.5% to 6.5%.
State budget revenues in September 2020 amounted to UAH 76 billion, which is 15.3% more than the planned figure and 11.5% more than last year’s level, according to the data of the State Treasury Service.
The total public debt of Ukraine in September 2020 decreased 2.6% in U.S. dollars, to $82.89 billion and increased by 0.32% in hryvnias, to UAH 2.345 trillion, according to data on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
The prices of industrial producers in Ukraine in September 2020 increased 1.7%, while in August the increase was 2.3%, in July 0.4%, and in June and May they decreased 2% and 0.6%, the State Statistics Service reported on Monday.
Leader of the Batkivschyna party Yulia Tymoshenko believes that the draft national budget for 2019 submitted by the authorities is a budget for the destruction of the economy, since it envisages raising tariffs and freezing minimum wages and pensions, which will lead to the total impoverishment of the population and the destruction of the middle class, according to the official website of the party.
“For the first time in the history of Ukraine, wages and pensions are equal to 43% of the subsistence level. This is the budget of total poverty, saving the tariff policy that is crushing for Ukrainian families – they are increasing by 23%. This is a corrupt and destructive budget for the economy,” Tymoshenko told journalists in the parliament.
According to the leader of Batkivschyna, the minimum wages and pensions provided in the estimates in U.S. dollar terms are 1.7 times less than they were at the beginning of 2014, health care financing has been reduced by 1.6 times.
According to Tymoshenko, it is unacceptable that the budget for 2019 is based on the old tax base, with twice the higher rates than in developed countries, which significantly slows down the development of the economy.
The politician noted that if the government draft budget is adopted, “the economy’s falling, emigration of people to other countries, the destruction of the middle class will continue.”
“This budget, in essence, is a verdict to the country. I hope that the deputies will not risk voting for it,” Tymoshenko stated.
BUDGET, PEOPLE, THREATENS, UKRAINIAN ECONOMY, WELL-BEING, YULIA TYMOSHENKO
