Growth In Ukrainian Agricultural Output Slows In August

Year-on-year growth in Ukraine's agricultural output slowed to 0.4% in January-August, compared with a gain of 3.8% in January-July.

The slowing indicates agricultural output in August was lower than in the same month last year, although the State Statistics Committee does not publish monthly output figures for agriculture.

Output from agricultural enterprises in the first eight months was 3.6% lower year-on-year, compared with growth of 5.9% through the first seven months. Agricultural output from private plots rose 3.8% in January-August, up from a 1.8% year-on-year increase in January-July.

Economics Ministry Bogdan Danylyshyn said the apparent slowdown in August was due to the exceptionally high output in August 2008. Indeed, output rose 21% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2008, including a 45.2% increase in output from agricultural enterprises.

Analysts had anticipated a steep decline in agricultural production in August as the grain harvest was significantly lower than in 2008. That effect was hardly felt in July as the harvest began earlier than last year.

The Agriculture Ministry forecasts the grain harvest at up to 45 million tonnes in 2009 compared with 53.3 million tonnes in 2008.

Source: KyivPost