Page 23 - UKRRptDec18

3.2 Macro outlook
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko expects gross domestic product (GDP) this year to grow to 4%. "This year the growth [of GDP] is expected to exceed 3%. And the indicator of the second quarter - and I am pleased to talk about it - exceeded the optimistic forecasts and amounted to 3.8% [the GDP growth] ... And we are definitely approaching the figure of 4% of GDP growth," he said at the opening of the tenth international economic forum "Innovations. Investments. Kharkiv Initiatives!" in Kharkiv.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its outlook for Ukrainian GDP growth in 2019-2020, the funds said in its World Economic Outlook report released on October 8.
The fund lowered its estimate for the growth in Ukraine in 2019 to 2.7% from 3.3% projected in April.
In addition, the IMF worsened the forecast for GDP growth in 2020 to 3.4% from 4%, but improved this figure for 2018, to 3.5% from 3.2%.
The inflation forecast in 2018 was improved by 0.1 percentage points, to 10.9%, and in 2019 by 0.7 percentage points, to 7.3%.
The consumer price growth forecast for 2018 was left unchanged, whereas the figure for 2019 was improved to 6.2% from 6.5%.
The IMF also revised upwards the deficit of the current account of the country's balance of payment for 2018, to 3.1% of GDP from 3.7% of GDP, downgrading the figure for 2019 to 3.5% from 3% of GDP.
In the five-year term, the deficit of the current account of the balance of payments is expected to decrease to 3.1% (growth to 4% was projected in April).
In addition, the IMF experts revised the forecast of unemployment in Ukraine: the estimate for 2018 was worsened to 9.4% from 9.2%, for 2019 - to 9.2% from 8.8%.
23 UKRAINE Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com