Central Bank projects economic growth as of July – Gontareva

The Ukrainian economy will start recovering as of the second half of the current year, according to Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Valeriya Gontareva.

"We believe that the growth will start in the second half of the year, perhaps as early as this quarter," she said during a video conference at the Ukrainian Investment Day event organized by Concorde Capital in New York on Friday.

The situation remained stable on the financial market in the past four months, and deposits have started coming back to the banking system, including due to decent interest rates offered by the NBU on its deposit certificates, she said.

Most of Ukraine's largest banks have already fulfilled their capital increase targets set until July 1, 2015 after last year's stress tests, she added.

"However, the stabilization won't be sustainable without GDP growth," she underlined.

She acknowledged that one of the means to achieve the stability on the market were "draconian" administrative restrictions.

"We've agreed with the International Monetary Fund a gradual plan, a road map of how we will be lifting them," she said.

She also said that transition to the targeting of inflation was the central bank's priority task. "Right now this year we have the monetary regime of money supply, but our basic idea is, of course, inflation targeting, "she said.

At the same time, she said, this transition is possible under certain conditions, namely, the stable situation in the country. "But we still believe that we will launch our inflation targeting within the 12 months, as this is foreseen in our Extended Fund Facility program, and we're preparing instruments for this," she added.