11:02 01.07.2019

Ukrainian mobile communications market first in six year to grow higher than inflation in 2019 – Kyivstar

2 min read
Ukrainian mobile communications market first in six year to grow higher than inflation in 2019 – Kyivstar

 The mobile communications market in Ukraine first since 2014 could show positive growth of revenue in 2019 adjusted to inflation, President of Kyivstar mobile communications operator Alexander Komarov told reporters in Lviv on Saturday.

"In 2019, for the first time since 2014, we will be able to show positive growth with an adjustment to inflation. If we now forecast that the market will grow by about 15%, then the industry will be able to show a growth of 6.5% in real money adjusted to inflation," he said.

According to information released by the operator with reference to the official data of mobile operators, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the National Bank of Ukraine and the State Statistics Service, the revenues of mobile operators in Ukraine in 2014 decreased by 10.6%, in 2015 – by 29%, in 2016 – by 2.9% , in 2017 – by 5.9%, in 2018 – by 0.3%. In 2019, Kyivstar expects real growth in revenues on the market adjusted to inflation in the country.

Komarov also said that Kyivstar is developing "slightly better than the market:" if in the first quarter of this year the market grew by an average of 20%, then Kyivstar grew by 21%.

"This is a very high figure considering the size of the business. I would even say that this is a record figure for many years. We grew so only at the stage of mobile communication development, when penetration grew very sharply. And now we have a very sharp increase in data services penetration," the head of Kyivstar said.

He also said that about 60% of the phones in the operator's base are smartphones.

"In fact, the industry is developing quite well. But even so, it has room to grow with an adjustment to inflation. We need to achieve stable growth and grow at a faster pace to ensure a balance between consumption growth and our income growth, because we reinvest the lion's share of this income in order to ensure growing consumption," the head of the company said.

AD
AD
AD
AD
AD