Washington’s involvement may also help mitigate political opposition in Europe, while giving the U.S. strategic visibility over future Russian energy flows, sources told Reuters.
The agreement, signed on April 30, establishes a joint investment fund between Kyiv and Washington and grants the U.S. special access to projects developing Ukraine's natural resources.
Ukraine is considering moving away from the U.S. dollar and closer to the euro as a benchmark for the hryvnia, National Bank Governor Andrii Pyshnyi told Reuters.
Ukraine’s GDP has reached $200 billion in 2021, the highest it's ever been since independence, according to the Deputy Minister of Economy Denys Kudin (Julia Berezovska/ Press office NBU)
Ukraine’s gross domestic product was $200 billion in 2021, the highest it's ever been since the country became independent in 1991, Deputy Minister of Economy Denys Kudin said on Jan. 28.
The country managed to hit this peak in spite of the setbacks from the Covid-19 pandemic and close to eight years of being under attack by Russia and its proxies.
Last year's GDP was also a steep increase from 2020, when it was just $155 billion, according to the World Bank's figures.
Kudin pointed out the figure during a roundtable discussion with the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), adding that Ukraine has achieved macroeconomic stability, “which is the foundation without which economic growth is impossible.”
“Ukraine has a record GDP of $200 billion, sufficient foreign exchange reserves, and an average salary increase of 21% – these are the indicators with which the Ukrainian economy ended 2021,” he wrote on Facebook soon after the meeting.
However, according to Kudin, the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war on Ukraine, the global surge in gas prices and the weakening hryvnia have been “adverse factors” for Ukraine’s economy.
“As a result, we achieved economic growth of 3% of GDP in spite of the forecasted 4.6%,” he wrote.
Earlier in October, the National Bank of Ukraine downgraded the country’s economic growth forecast for 2021 from 3.8% to 3.1%, due to the long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and increased gas prices.
The International Monetary Fund's projected that Ukraine's GDP would grow by 3.2% in 2022.
Russia's recent buildup of over 120,000 troops near Ukraine's borders in preparation for a possible invasion has hurt the economy.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Hr 12.5 billion ($446 million) in investments flowed out of Ukraine as a result of fear. The government has also had to dip into its reserves to stabilize the hryvnia, which fell to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in seven years on Jan. 27, closing at an exchange rate of Hr 28.95 per $1.
The president said Ukraine will need about $5 billion to stabilize the economy.
Daria Shulzhenko is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She has been a lifestyle reporter at the Kyiv Post until November 2021. She graduated from Kyiv International University with a bachelor’s in linguistics, specializing in translation from English and German languages. She has previously worked as a freelance writer and researcher.
