Photo from Wikimedia
Ukraine’s key creditor, the International Monetary Fund, predicts a decline in Ukrainian exports in 2015 due to worsening terms of trade and a decline in economic activity in the first half of the year, according to a draft memorandum between Ukraine and the IMF that was signed by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Finance Minister Natalia Jaresko and National Bank of Ukraine Governor Valeria Gontareva.
"The volume of exports in 2015 will decline on the backdrop of the crisis in export-oriented sectors, the worsening trade balance and a significant drop in revenues from tourism and transport,” the memorandum reads.
“A reduction of direct investment, lack of access to the Eurobonds market and the decline in refinancing corporate and banking debt will further add to financial pressures."
However, the IMF has noted that the agreed program of economic reforms has a broad base and is expected to provide a competitive advantage, improve the business climate, and with the restoration of confidence enable access to capital markets for the public and private sectors.
"Ukraine will become an attractive target for investment and will significantly improve its position in the medium term. The current account deficit in the years 2016-2018 will stabilize at around 1-1.5% of GDP and reserves will be gradually recover to a comfortable level," the IMF said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, according to the State Statistics Service, the negative balance of foreign trade of Ukraine in 2014 decreased by 29 times to $468.3 million, while the balance of foreign trade in 2013 was in deficit by $13.5 billion.
At the same time, in 2014 exports in Ukraine decreased by 13.5% compared to 2013 - to $53.913 billion.