President Viktor Yanukovych pledged Thursday that Ukraine will gradually reduce bank loan interest rates for private entrepreneurs to encourage more investment in the country, according to Xinhua.
"Currently loans are expensive, as interest rates are kept at 17-18 percent. This year, we will cut the average bank loan interest rate to 14 percent and in 2014 we will further reduce it to 10-11 percent," Yanukovych said during his visit to Volyn region in the west of the country.
The move to cut the interest rates is aimed at attracting more international capital injections in the economy, Yanukovych said.
The government will further explore for ways to create a better investment environment for businesses, he added.
According to official data, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ukraine decreased by 10.6 percent to 4.129 billion U.S. dollars in 2012.
In the first six months of 2013, Ukraine attracted 224 million U.S. dollars of FDI, down from 2.369 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2012.
