Meeting of German business representatives in Kiev

On the occasion of the monthly meeting of German business representatives in Kiev on 6 December 2016, the German Advisory Group Ukraine presented results of its latest analyses concerning Ukraine. First, Ricardo Giucci, Leader of the German Advisory Group Ukraine, held a presentation on the topic “The current situation of the Ukrainian economy at the end of 2016 and an outlook on 2017”. Referring to important macroeconomic indicators he pointed out that the situation is stabilising: GDP increased slightly this year and also investment went up significantly in the first half of 2016. The inflation rate went down to a single-digit number. Increasing imports are an indicator of the economic recovery and exports decrease mainly due to low commodity prices and the limited access to the Russian market.

Afterwards, David Saha, consultant of the German Advisory Group Ukraine, spoke about clusters as an instrument of industrial policy. The creation of clusters is an opportunity for the government to support enterprises with common value chains regionally. This approach also allows for a more effective attraction of FDI employing few financial resources.

In the end Georg Zachmann, also consultant of the German Advisory Group Ukraine, gave an assessment of the current state and possible risks of the reform of the energy market: The draft law has yet to be accepted by the Parliament. In case market power of the energy supplier DTEK cannot be restricted successfully, the EU might partly be blamed for the failure of the reform.