Ukraine’s economy may be showing some signs of life. The government in Kyiv reported a growth rate in the fourth quarter of almost five percent.
“The State Statistics Service said gross domestic product (GDP) growth reached 4.7 percent between October and December 2016 compared to the same period a year earlier.
But analysts said they were taken aback by such a large jump in the war-scarred former Soviet republic.
“I was surprised,” Olena Bilan of the Dragon Capital investment company in Kiev told AFP. “My estimate was 3.3 percent,”” reports AFP.
The sectors which drove the recovery were housing and construction, consumer goods, and agriculture, formerly a strong point for the former Soviet territory. The estimates for 2016 economic growth hover around 1%, with 2017 expected to clock in around 2%.
The Ukrainian economy shrank around 17% since the revolution and subsequent wars in 2017.
