MOSCOW, July 01. /ITAR-TASS/. Inflation in Ukraine will accelerate to double digits in 2014 amid the continued economic slump in the ex-Soviet republic, analysts of Russia’s largest lender Sberbank said on Tuesday.
“Last time, this trend (soaring inflation) was registered in 2009,” analysts of the bank’s investment division Sberbank CIB said in a quarterly review of the Ukrainian economy.
Ukraine’s inflation jumped to 15.9% in 2009 amid the global economic and financial crisis, with consumer prices rising by 11.9%.
Ukraine’s inflation accelerated sharply in January-May 2014. Inflation measured 3.3% in April, month on month, and increased to 3.8% in May, exceeding the growth rates registered in 2012 and 2013, the analysts said.
Ukraine’s consumer prices have risen by 10.5% since the start of the year and by 10.9% compared with the same period of last year.
“Inflation acceleration can be considered a normal thing amid economic decline and the growth of nominal income,” the analysts said.
Ukraine’s industrial production fell by 4.6% in January-May 2014 from the same period of the previous year. At the same time, Ukraine’s GDP slipped by only 1.1% in the first quarter of 2014, propped up by agriculture and trade.
Ukraine’s other major sectors like construction, manufacturing, transport and communications registered a decline in their output.