Azarov: ‘Forecasts by IMF and other financial institutions on Ukraine sometimes differ from ours’

"Representatives of the IMF, the World Bank and other financial institutions monitoring the situation in Ukraine have the ability to rather accurately and realistically make forecasts about economic development in Ukraine. And the government attentively listens to them. Sometimes these forecasts coincide with ours. Sometimes they differ. But this does not mean that they are doing something intentionally, or with a certain purpose," he wrote on his page on Facebook, when asked whether international experts understate figures on Ukraine.

Azarov said that the main task was to make a realistic forecast, as the planning of budget expenditures, the holding of the monetary policy the National Bank of Ukraine and a number of other important areas of state policy depend on this forecast.

He also named the main factors causing the reduction in the forecast figures, in particular, economic recession in the European Union, the decline in demand for a number of products of the Ukrainian economy, the banking crisis, and the lack of available financial resources for investment in the Ukrainian economy.

"Thirdly, the issue concerns the debt crisis, which means greater difficulties in accessing the capital market to finance the budget deficit, a slowdown in the pace of economic development in such large countries as China, or, for example, countries that are partners of Ukraine, as well as a reduction in the forecast for the harvest of early crops, etc," Azarov said.

He added that he had listed just some of the factors influencing the development of the Ukrainian economy.

"In fact, the number of such factors is much larger. There are internal factors, and there are external factors. And, finally, there are government measures to minimize the impact of negative factors on the Ukrainian economy. And when it all comes down to a single whole, and certain figures determine forecasts for economic growth, there could be a discussion here. There could be discrepancies," he said.

"But I emphasize once again that over the period of my experience of cooperation with the IMF and the World Bank, I have not seen any purposes in their estimates. I emphasize again that we trust and respect these forecasts," Azarov said.