You're reading: Yatsenyuk expects Ukraine GDP to drop by 7 percent in 2014

Ukraine's real GDP will decline by 7 percent in 2014, which is better than was expected just recently, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said.

“We expect minus 7 percent, not minus 10 percent. Three percent is a significant [reduction] that we have managed to accomplish,” Yatsenyuk said at a government meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 26.

The prime minister mentioned “Russian aggression and the destroyed economy in the east of the country” as the main reasons for the GDP drop.

Under these conditions, the government has managed to increase budget revenue by 5 percent compared to the same period in 2013, including by closing a number of shadow schemes, and maintain the budget deficit at 4 percent, he said.