A larger decline in Ukraine's GDP is expected in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the first quarter, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Pavlo Sheremeta has said.
“The military situation in the country, unfortunately, is worse than it was in the first quarter, therefore the second quarter will not be better than the first one,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv.
Sheremeta said that the Economic Ministry is working on improving the GDP figures in the second quarter of 2015.
As reported, with reference to the State Statistics Service, Ukraine’s real GDP in the first quarter of 2014 decreased compared to the same period in 2013 by 1.1%.
Ukraine’s GDP in the fourth quarter of 2013 grew by 3.7%, prior to that it had been falling for five quarters in a row: if in the third and fourth quarters of 2012 the decline was 1.3% and 2.5% respectively, in 2013 it accelerated from 1.1% in the first quarter to 1.3% in the second and third quarters.
In general, in 2013 the GDP growth was zero in Ukraine, and in 2012 it slowed to 0.2% from 5.2% a year earlier.
The government of Ukraine is expecting the country’s economy in 2014 to fall by 5%.
