The Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture expects Ukraine's economy to contract by 3% in October-December 2020 compared to the same period a year earlier, Economy Minister Ihor Petrashko has said.

"We have already begun to see economic stabilization ... The decline in the third quarter remained at 3% of GDP and 3% of GDP is expected in the fourth quarter," he said at a press conference in Kyiv.

According to the State Statistics Service, the decline in Ukraine's GDP in the third quarter of 2020 slowed down to 3.5% from 11.4% in the second quarter. In the first quarter this year it was 1.3%, while in the fourth quarter of 2019 there was an increase of 1.5%, in the third quarter 3.9%, in the second quarter 4.7% and in the first quarter 2.9%.

Petrashko specified that the Ministry of Economy maintains the April forecast for a 4.8% drop in GDP over the year and expects the economy to grow by 4.6% in 2021.