The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expects that Ukraine’s GDP growth will slow to 3 percent in the first quarter of 2017 from 4.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to an inflation report of the central bank.
“The key factor for slowing the growth was the blockade of transportation lines in the east of the country. As a consequence, the quicker decline in the mining and metal production and worsening of indicators of adjacent sectors was seen,” the NBU said.
The central bank said that average steel and cast iron production in March was 15 percent and 18 percent less than in January.
Consumer demand in the first quarter 2017 was moderate, despite the double increase in minimum wage.
The NBU said that there are signs of retaining the high pace of investment growth.
“A large increase in production of machines and equipment for the needs of all key types of operations (including growth in production of railway rolling stock), the high pace of growth in construction and imports of engineering products showed that investment is growing. The annual investment pace was formed on the low comparison base,” the NBU said.
