Ukraine’s industrial production showed a decline in September for the first time since March 2021, by 0.9 percent on a year-on-year basis. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin commenting on data by the State Statistics Service.

“For the first time since March 2021, our industrial production declined in September by 0.9 percent on a year-on-year basis, even against the low comparative base. This means the government had done nothing to revive the economy,” Lovochkin said.

He added that mining industry grew by mere 1 percent in September, annualized, while coal mining slid by 12.7 percent. Processing industry dropped by 1.1 percent, including food sector by 4.2 percent, textile by 10.6 percent, chemicals by 9.6 percent. Supplies of electricity, gas, and conditioned air decreased by 2.4 percent.

The decrease in production industries in September 2021 compared to September 2020 was reported in 17 out of 25 regions of the country, or two thirds of the nation.

“For nine months of 2021, industrial production had grown cumulatively by mere 1.4 percent, which is almost four times less than the decline rate of minus 6.2 percent for the same period in 2020. As production remains the basis of Ukraine’s economy, the continuation of current trends means that Ukraine will not even be able to ‘win back’ in 2021 the last year’s GDP drop, let alone reduce the lag from the ‘pre-war’ 2013. Similar forecast was recently confirmed by the National Bank of Ukraine which had worsened its estimates for economic growth in 2021 to 3.1 percent, while it fell by 4 percent in 2020,” the MP said.