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The growth rate of consumer prices will slow to 7.7% within the next 12 months, entrepreneurs expect, while their forecast in the previous quarter was at 9%.
Ukrainian business CEOs have significantly improved their forecasts for inflation and the hryvnia exchange rate against the U.S. dollar in the next 12 months.
The survey conducted by the National Bank of Ukraine among top managers of the country's enterprises says they expect the hryvnia exchange rate at the level of UAH 28.82 to the dollar within the next 12 months, which is better than the indicator forecast in the previous quarter (UAH 29.32 to the dollar). At the same time, over a third of the polled companies (33.4 %) expect the exchange rate will not exceed UAH 28.00 to the dollar.
In addition, entrepreneurs expect the growth rate of consumer prices will slow to 7.7% within the next 12 months, while their forecast in the previous quarter was 9%.
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The survey was conducted from May 3 to June 4, 2019, among 699 enterprises from 22 regions of Ukraine (except for occupied Crimea, as well as occupied part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions), which represent the economy by main types of activities, ownership, size and number of employees.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's national currency, the hryvnia, in June 2019 strengthened by 2.5% against the U.S. dollar, to UAH 26.18 at the official rate of the National Bank of Ukraine.
The national budget of Ukraine for 2019 is based on the forecast rate set at UAH 29.4 to the dollar by the end of 2019.
According to the expert consensus forecast compiled by UNIAN, the hryvnia exchange rate against the U.S. dollar at the end of 2019 is expected at UAH 30.
Hryvnia's historic low against the U.S. dollar was registered at UAH 30.01 in February 2015.