Ukraine sees 7% rise in light industry's output in eight months – expert

The pace of textile production growth in January-August this year was 112.3% against January-August last year, the growth rate of leather and footwear production was 107.2%, she said at a press conference.

The lowest growth in the light industry in Ukraine was reported by the production of clothes, which was set at 104.1% compared to the corresponding period of 2016.

Read alsoUkraine's industry copes with aftermath of Donbas trade blockade – Kubiv "Last year, we sold goods worth than UAH 20 billion. The split in the sectors is the following: clothes account for 41% of the total number of goods sold, the share of textiles production is 37% and that of leather and footwear is 22%," the expert said.

At the same time, she said, if the production of goods per one resident of Ukraine is compared to 2013 based on the forex rate of the hryvnia against the U.S. dollar, output was $26.3 per capita in 2013 and it dropped by $7.9 to $18.4 per capita in 2016.

"According to the regional rating of production in 2016, Lviv region ranks first with a significant, successful breakthrough of 14.4%, Zhytomyr region accounts for 8.7%, Kharkiv region for 8.5%, Dnipropetrovsk region for 7%. The city of Kyiv is the last of the top five, its light industry accounts for 6.9% of the total production in the country," Izovit said.

Read alsoUkraine's fiscal service boasts of almost full digitalization of customs declarationsImports account for 58% of goods available on the Ukrainian market, the share of smuggled or shadow goods is 20.8%, while own production accounts for 14.7% and second-hand goods for 6.5%, she said.

The largest light industry imports to Ukraine in 2016 came from China (27.4%), Poland (10.2%), Turkey (9.2%), Germany 8.2%), and Italy (7.1% %).