Chairwoman of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeria Gontareva thinks that GDP may decline to 1.5% if trade blockade in Donbas continues. She reported this during the briefing in the National Bank.
Also, continuation of trade blockade may worsen Ukraine’s overall balance of payment by $2 billion in 2017, according to Gontareva.
The press service of the National Bank also informed that the refinancing rate is maintained at 14% interest. Such decision was taken because of the need to neutralize risks to achieve inflation targets in 2017-2018.
Beyond that, inflation accelerated to 12.6% in per year terms. The index corresponds with the inflation forecast. National Bank explains the acceleration with increased production expenses, particularly for salaries, increase in commodity prices increase on international markets including oil and food, hryvna weakening in the end of 2016 and first half of January 2017.
