REUTERS
Negative results prevailed in metallurgy, while retail trade kept growing.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) says the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2020 fell by 0.5%.
NBU Deputy Governor Dmytro Solohub told an online briefing on Thursday that the Bank's estimates "see a slight drop in GDP, by about 0.5%, in the first quarter."
"The situation in the economy was heterogeneous, as in the fourth quarter of last year," said Solohub.
The official says negative results prevailed in metallurgy, although, in general, since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis the situation in metallurgy has improved over the first quarter. At the same time, retail trade kept showing significant growth, while a significant drop in agricultural indicators in the fourth quarter of 2019 was replaced by a slight decrease in the 1Q this year.
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"The Ukrainian economy is approaching this crisis being not the most prepared one in the world, but neither it is worst prepared – it's much better prepared than it was in previous crises," the NBU deputy head added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada adopted "anti-crisis" changes to the 2020 state budget, almost tripling its deficit, up to UAH 298.4 billion. The new state budget is based on forecasts of a 3.9% GDP decline against previously projected 3.7% growth, unemployment at 9.4% (vs 8.1%), the average annual hryvnia exchange rate at UAH 29.5 per dollar (vs UAH 27), as well as inflation accelerating to 8.7%.
In 2019, the state budget deficit amounted to UAH 78 billion, or 1.9% of GDP, with the target of UAH 91.1 billion, or 2.26% of GDP.
The growth of Ukraine's real GDP in 2019 slowed to the best mark in the last seven years, or 3.2% from 3.4% in 2018.