Ukraine. GDP growth in Q4/13 exceeded expert expectations
2014-02-03 11:53:49
GDP growth by 3.7% was higher than the forecasts of experts, Executive Director of the Blazer Foundation Oleh Ustenko has told Ukrinform on Friday.
"There has been a general expectation that the Ukrainian economy would be on the rise in the fourth quarter. But most experts, and including myself, thought that it would be impossible to win back the drop in the first three [quarters - ed.]," the economist said.
Ustenko explained that the reasons for the growth of GDP in the fourth quarter was, first, the revival of foreign markets, and secondly, the relative stability of the domestic demand. Also, a considerable role was played by low base of comparison - GDP was declining over the last 6 months of 2013.
According to the expert, 2013 became a disaster for the Ukrainian economy: "The initial macroeconomic forecast for GDP growth rate has not justified, and the budget has suffered from that".
A reminder that according to latest data of the State Statistics Service, the annual rate of growth of the Ukrainian economy in 2013 was zero.