The World Bank downgrades Ukraine’s GDP growth forecasts. But promises to support
23 April 17:28
In an updated macroeconomic forecast for Europe and Central Asia, the World Bank confirmed its January forecast of a slowdown in Ukraine’s GDP growth this year to 2% from 2.9% last year. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine with reference to a World Bank document published on Wednesday, the
The forecast also downgrades the estimate of GDP growth next year to 5.2% from 7%.
“Ukraine’s growth is expected to slow to 2% this year before recovering to 5.2% in 2026 if hostilities end and reconstruction begins,” the World Bank said.
They reminded that amid the ongoing hostilities in the country, growth in Ukraine fell to 2.9% last year from 5.5% in 2023.
Among the reasons for the slowdown in growth, the bank cites “a decrease in external demand, a shortage of labor, and further interruptions in electricity supply due to the war.”
Last week, the National Bank downgraded its forecast for Ukrainian economic growth for this year to 3.1% from 3.6% in the previous January macroeconomic forecast, and adjusted its expectations for 2026 – from 4.0% to 3.7%.
Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund in its April World Economic Outlook left unchanged its forecast for Ukrainian economic growth in 2025 at 2%. In 2026, the IMF expects GDP growth of 4.5%. For Ukraine, inflation is projected at 12.6% in 2025, and 7.7% in the following year.
The International Monetary Fund has lowered its forecast for global GDP growth in 2025 by 0.5 percentage points to 2.8% from 3.3%.
The World Bank has confirmed its partnership with Ukraine
For 2022-2025, the volume of the World Bank’s portfolio of existing projects in Ukraine is the largest for all years of cooperation. This was announced at a meeting between the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko and the World Bank’s leadership. Ukrainian officials are currently on a working visit to Washington, D.C., as part of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group.
Since February 2022, the State Budget of Ukraine has received financial assistance in the amount of more than $51 billion as part of the resources mobilized by the World Bank, and most importantly, $30.7 billion in grants.
It is also reported that in 2024, the implementation of four projects under the Program-for-Results (PforR) lending program was launched for a total of USD 2.1 billion, of which about USD 1 billion has already been received in the general fund of the state budget in 2024.
