You're reading: Economic decline in Ukraine almost halted, says first vice premier

Ukrainian First Vice Premier Andriy Kliuyev has said that economic decline in Ukraine has almost been halted, and gross domestic product (GDP) has increased by 5.5% since the beginning of the year.

"In general the decline has stopped. GDP growth since the beginning of the year has been 5.5%. Industrial production grew by 11.4% over the period under review. This is how I will put it: the situation is quite difficult, but we’re gradually getting out of the crisis. This concerns the key industries, upon which we can draw certain conclusions," he said in an interview with the 2000 newspaper on Friday.

The situation in metallurgy has improved a lot, he said. However, the situation in the chemical industry is complicated, as international prices of chemicals have again declined lately.

"But I hope that forecasts for the invigoration of global economic demand for their [chemical] products will become reality by the end of summer, and we will be able to confidently speak about the stabilization of production in that sector," he said.

Speaking about the incumbent government’s achievements over the past six months, Kliuyev said: "We’ve streamlined finances, passed a relatively balanced budget – as much as it could be done under the current extraordinary conditions, and paid off state debts inherited from the former government. One may say that today we’ve almost repaid all domestic state borrowings from the previous periods."

According to Kliuyev, all the regions have started implementing large infrastructure-based projects, which had been frozen for this or that reason.

"Did you see half a year ago that someone was building something somewhere? Only now work at large facilities has become active, they’re building around the clock at some sites, monitoring of the execution of these projects has been toughened," he said.