Ukraine's economy grows at fastest rate since 2013.

Ukraine’s economy in the second quarter of this year grew at its fastest rate since 2013, expanding by 1.3% compared to a year earlier, preliminary State Statistics Office data released on August 15 showed.

 The economy might have expanded the most since 2013, but growth missed the Bloomberg consensus forecast for 1.7%, though it is still on target to hit the official forecast for 1.0% growth for the full year. The economy crashed after the start of the Euromaidan protests contracting by 6.8% in 2014 and 9.9% in 2015.

The second-quarter result was better than the marginal 0.1% expansion seen in the first quarter of this year and suggests the economy has passed its nadir, though the recovery is being hampered by holdups in a $17.5bn IMF-led bailout, a lack of zeal in tackling corruption and a benchmark interest rate of 15.5%.
“The macro performance for Ukraine this year has been very encouraging, and more or less in line with IMF-defined targets, albeit the latter programme is currently stalled,” said Tim Ash, head of CEEMEA strategy at Nomura in an emailed note.