Ukraine’s gross domestic product advanced 7.5 percent in January, helped by exports and agriculture, the central bank said, according to Bloomberg. Industrial production, which makes up 25 percent of the gross domestic product, surged by 11.8 percent in January from the same month a year ago, driven by metal and machine-building industries, the state statistics data show.

 “Machine-building output rose the most in January due to recovery of foreign and domestic demand,” the Kiev-based Natsionalnyi Bank Ukrainy said in a statement on its Web site. “Steel production increased due to demand from Middle East, Europe, Africa and Russia as well as due to the hryvnia devaluation, making Ukraine’s metal products cheaper and more competitive.”

 Ukraine is counting on increased demand for exports that make more up than 40 percent of its GDP to haul the economy out of recession. The annual decline in GDP slowed to 7 percent in the fourth quarter from 15.9 percent in the third quarter and a record 20.3 percent in the first three months of 2009.

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Still, Ukraine’s economic recovery is “slow and unstable” because it relies only on exports, while “domestic factors are weak,” the central bank said on Feb. 18.

By Daryna Krasnolutska, Bloomberg

Forwarded to UNIAN by Action Ukraine Report