The economy of Ukraine would be slightly better in the second half of the year than the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expected, NBU Deputy Governor Dmytro Sologub has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"Two factors – strong domestic demand and good harvest – will contribute to the revision of the GDP forecast," he said, adding that the process of such revision is currently underway.

Sologub said that the situation in the economy of Ukraine in the first half of 2019 was developing a little better than the National Bank suggested in its more conservative forecast.

"If you look at the past six months, their results globally coincided with our expectations, maybe even turned out to be slightly better – but slightly better, not much... In terms of economic growth, we were more conservative. The situation is slightly better than expected," he said.

According to him, the external environment looks better this year than in the past: this also applies to financial markets and terms of trade. In particular, gas has fallen in price greatly, prices for Ukrainian export goods, ore and grains, remain high, Sologub said.

At the same time, Sologub said that somewhat better than expected indicators are related not so much to external demand, but to the internal environment.

"Despite the political cycle, consumer and domestic investors are in a good mood. Accordingly, the growth rates of consumption and investment also look pretty good," the NBU deputy head said.