The government's forecast for the rise of Ukraine's real GDP by 2% in 2016 could be downgraded due to negative external factors, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has stated.

"We forecast a 2% economic growth in the current year, but a series of new challenges that have emerged in the world could adjust our forecasts," he said, speaking with the report in the parliament.

Yatseniuk noted that in the recent quarters the dynamics of GDP has improved, in particular, in the third and fourth quarters of 2015 the State Statistics Service for the first time in two years recorded a real growth of the economy in relation to the previous quarter by 0.5% and 1.5% respectively.

As reported, Ukraine's GDP in the fourth quarter of 2015 fell by 1.2% compared to the same period of 2014, while the decline in the third quarter was 7%, in the second 14.6%, and in the first 17.2%.