Share of Donetsk, Luhansk regions in Ukraine GRP plunges by two thirds y-o-y - central bank
KYIV. April 2 (Interfax) - Ukraine's National Bank puts the combined contribution of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to the country's gross regional product for the first quarter of 2015 at 5.6% compared with their contribution of 16.4% for the first quarter of 2012.
According to the bank's quarterly inflationary report, the GRP of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for the first quarter of 2015 was respectively 63% and 83% down on 2014 whereas Ukraine's gross domestic product has shrunk by 15% over the same period or by 5.5% if the two eastern regions are excluded.
Donetsk region's GRP contracted by 26% in 2014 - it had decreased by 4.9% in 2013. The GRP of Luhansk region plummeted by 34% in 2014, having shrunk by only 4.6 in 2013. The country's GDP declined by 6.8% in 2014 or by 2.7% excluding Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Donetsk and Luhansk regions accounted for 14.9% of Ukraine's 2013 GRP, the National Bank said, citing the State Statistics Service.
In a forecast for 2015, the bank says GDP's decline will slow down to 10.2% in the second and to 5.7% in the third quarter from 15% in the first quarter, and that the fourth quarter will bring 2% growth.
This conclusion is based on the assumption that the military conflict in the east is over definitively and that economic activities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions will resume by 1% a quarter as from the second quarter of 2015.
