Arseniy Yatsenyuk: The second half of 2015 showed positive dynamics of GDP growth. Growth in fourth quarter - 1.5%

The Government managed to reduce the deficit of public finance fivefold, while in the fourth quarter, the GDP growth amounted 1.5%. This was announced by Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Tuesday, February 16, at the Parliament during the Government's report on its activities for 2015.

"We have been facing extremely difficult economic challenges. The country has lost one fifth of its economic potential as a result of the annexation of Crimea, the intervention into Donetsk and Luhansk. The country suffers billions of losses from war, investors are scared. Therefore, in the recent developments, we were obliged to make very active steps to stabilize the Ukrainian economy", he stressed.

At the same time, Arseniy Yatsenyuk accentuated there were first signs the economy is stabilizing: "For the first time in last two years, the third and fourth quarter of 2015 showed positive dynamics of GDP growth. In the third quarter the GDP growth showing was 0.5%, in the fourth quarter - 1.5%".

The Prime Minister reminded that in the current year an economic growth showing was planned at 2%, however a number of other challenges the world is facing can affect the forecast.

According to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, another achievement for 2015 was that the Government managed to reduce the public finance deficit fivefold: "If in 2014, the total deficit of public finance amounted over 10% according to the methodology of the International Monetary Fund, in 2015 we managed to reduce the deficit of public finance fivefold. This figure is 2.1 percent."

Due to the joint work of the Government and the Parliament, he said, it could prove possible to improve the business environment in the country, in particular the rate of foreign investment: "Last year we experienced the inflow of foreign investment, as a rule, only in the banking sector. But while we can't note that foreign investors come to Ukraine to develop the economy – there exists too many challenges. However, deregulation of the Ukrainian economy, which we carried out jointly, allowed Ukraine to improve its performance by 29 positions in the global ranking Doing Business".