Gov’t officials held a briefing on macroeconomic forecast for 2020 and outcomes of a working trip to the USA

Today, October 22, Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Tymofii Mylovanov, together with his deputy Serhii Nikolaichuk, held a briefing regarding the preparation of the macroeconomic outlook for the next year, as well as told about the results of the Ukrainian delegation's working trip to the United States of America.

“We used to have more than 10 meetings daily. We communicated with IMF, World Bank senior officials, and held a number of technical meetings on specific issues of concern. Certainly, among the main achievements we have made was an agreement with our foreign partners to send the IMF mission to Ukraine in the near future and to continue the negotiation process launched through the efforts of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Agriculture, Ministry of Finance and the NBU,” said Tymofii Mylovanov.

Moreover, the Minister added that the focus of the dialogue had been the introduction of structural reforms by Ukraine, in particular, the launch of transparent land turnover, improvement of the efficiency of use of state property and so on.

“Today, all state-owned enterprises bring about 2.2% gains on assets to the state. Certainly, that’s insufficient, and we must enhance performance. Improving corporate governance and establishing a National Welfare Fund are some of the effective tools that can help. If the business climate improves, the economy will see investment flows - and we will have growth”, said Tymofii Mylovanov.

Meanwhile, during the briefing, Deputy Minister Serhii Nikolaichuk noted activities on the preparation of the macroeconomic projections were underway and it would soon be approved by the Government and presented to the public.

“On a tight schedule, we have prepared two scenarios of the macroeconomic forecast. In the first - the economy will grow by 3.7% next year, in the second – on condition of the implementation of reforms aimed to improve the business climate - by 4.8%. We have already discussed these scenarios at a Government meeting with experts and the IMF mission. In the near future, we will officially approve the forecast by a Government resolution and make the details public,” said Serhii Nikolaichuk.

The Deputy Minister noted that during the visit to the United States, the World Bank published its outlook, which corresponds to one of the scenarios developed by the Ministry, thereby confirming the feasibility of the estimates made.