You're reading: Poroshenko: Ukraine avoids default and resumes economic growth

Ukraine was able to avoid an economic default, despite the loss of GDP and part of the infrastructure, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

“We avoided default caused by Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine and restored economic growth. This is the merit of the strong, patriotic and responsible Ukrainian people,” Poroshenko said at a meeting with Volyn region representatives in Lutsk.

“I’ll start with the statistics, which gives us an opportunity to understand what kind of abyss we all jumped out of. Because of the annexation of Crimea we lost 3.6 percent of GDP, 80 percent of oil and gas deposits in the Black Sea, and 10 percent of the port infrastructure. Because of the occupation of part of Donbas, we lost 15% of GDP, 25 percent of industry,” the head of state added.