EBA: Ukraine's economy may accelerate to 4% in 2020

President of the European Business Association (EBA), CEO of Dragon Capital Tomas Fiala says Ukraine's economy may accelerate to 4% in 2020 with inflation at 5.2%.

"We expect GDP growth at 4% this year, and at 3.7% next year, while inflation at 5.2% this year and at 6.1% in 2021," he said at an EBA conference on February 6.

According to Fiala, the current macroeconomic situation in Ukraine is very favorable, whereas businesses' expectations as of the beginning of 2019 turned out to be more pessimistic than the year's actual results.

"Last year turned out to be better than we expected at the beginning of the year, the hryvnia strengthened by 17%, while inflation dropped to 4.1%. Moreover, reserves expanded and the economy grew by 3.3%, according to the year's results," the expert said.

Read alsoEBA President shares forecasts for hryvnia rate at year-end

As UNIAN reported earlier, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) maintained the forecast for real GDP growth in Ukraine in 2020 by 3.5%. The growth of Ukraine's real GDP in the third quarter of 2019 was 4.1% year-over-year. The expected growth rate for 2019 as a whole at about 3.5% would be the highest one over the past eight years.

According to recent forecasts, the International Monetary Fund expects economic growth in Ukraine in 2020 by 3%, the World Bank's forecast is set at 3.7%. The Ukrainian government predicts an increase in Ukraine's real GDP this year by 3.7%, but says it will review its projections.