REUTERS
Ukrainian businesses forecast consumer prices will grow by 15.6% in the next 12 months, which is lower than expectations of 16.2% inflation in the previous quarter (Q4 2016), according to the Business Outlook Survey conducted by the National Bank of Ukraine in Q1 2017.
The share of respondents forecasting that the growth of consumer prices will not exceed 15% or even will make a U-turn rose to 54% in Q1 2017 from 50.7% in Q4 2016, the survey said.
The polled businesses listed the forex rate (77.9%) and production costs (70.9%) as the main drivers of the price growth, but they also expect a certain relaxation of the impact of the forex rate.
Read alsoUkraine says price hike not due to rise of minimum wageAt the same time, they project the influence of changes in tax regulations on prices will significantly increase (30.2% of respondents share the statement, or 10.4 p.p. more than in Q4 2016), according to the survey.
The dynamics of money supply in the economy (8.0% of the polled, a decrease by 1.1 p.p.) will least affect the consumer price index, the businesses said.
As UNIAN reported, the index of business expectations by Ukrainian enterprises' managers grew to 113.3% in Q1 2017 from 108.7% in Q4 2016. At the same time, it is the fourth consecutive quarter when the corporate sector predicts the invigoration of business activity.