Ukraine's GDP increases almost 5% in 2011 - Azarov
KYIV. Jan 11 (Interfax) - Ukraine's GDP growth came to 5% in 2011, speeding up from 4.2% in 2010, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said while opening a session of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He said that the National Bank of Ukrainy's balance's monetary policy and government budget policy allowed the country to reach a record low in annual inflation at 4.6%.
"Real wages increased by 8.5%. This, by the way, is the leading figure among CIS countries," Azarov said.
He also said that the Ukraine state budget deficit for 2011 will come to 1.7% of GDP.
The government was able to achieve a breakthrough with state debt in 2011 and start reducing it, Azarov said. For instance, direct state debt went down to 27.4% for 2011 compared to around 30% at the end of 2010. This is especially importing when bearing in mind that peak state debt payments are slated for 2012-2013, Azarov said.
It was earlier reported that Azarov estimated Ukraine's GDP growth for January-November 2011 at 5.3%. He also said, according to estimates, nominal GDP came to 1.177 trillion hryvni (7.9898 hryvni/$1 on January 11, 2012), including 119 billion hryvni in November.
Ukraine's State Statistics Service has only released quarterly GDP results, according to which growth sped up to 6.6% for the third quarter, from 3.8% and 5.3% in the second and first quarters, respectively.