NBU estimates Ukraine's GDP growth at 3.2% in Q2

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has estimated GDP growth in Ukraine in the second quarter of 2018 (Q2) at 3.2% year-over-year (y-o-y).

"According to the NBU estimates, the pace of real GDP growth remained practically unchanged in the second quarter of 2018, that is 3.2% y-o-y [3.1% in Q1], and domestic demand was the main driver of the real GDP growth, with both consumption and investment rising," reads the NBU inflation report published on the regulator's website.

Read alsoFinance Ministry expects 3.5% GDP growth in Ukraine in 2018

The central bank forecasts an acceleration in GDP growth rates in Ukraine in 2018 to 3.4%.

"Economic growth will continue to be largely driven by private consumption, which is fueled this year by rapid growth in wages, remittances, and pensions. Investment activity is also anticipated to remain high. Favorable terms of trade, a recovery in the industrial sector, and the greater access of Ukrainian exporters to foreign markets will help decrease the negative contribution of net exports to GDP," it said.

The NBU projects that economic growth in 2019 will decelerate to 2.5% (below the previously forecast 2.9%). "This will be a result of waning effects of a rapid rise in social standards in the previous years amid prudent fiscal policy which is necessitated by large repayments of public debt. Furthermore, tight monetary conditions that are necessary to bring inflation back to the target will affect growth," it said.

The regulator forecasts that the real economy in 2020 is expected to grow by 2.9%.

As UNIAN reported, Ukraine's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade improved the forecast for Ukraine's GDP growth in 2018 to 3.2% from 3%. The growth of the economy in 2019 is projected at 3%, in 2020 at 3.8%, in 2021 at 4.1%.

Ukraine's State Statistics Service reported that Ukraine's real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2018 was 3.1% y-o-y.