The Ukrainian government has forecast the country's gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by up to 3.4%, while inflation will be 4.8% in 2013, First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Anatoliy Matksiuta has said.

"Today at the sitting we approved a macro forecast for the next year: GDP growth will be 3.4%, and yearly inflation 4.8%," he told journalists after a sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Maksiuta said that the government expected nominal GDP in 2013 to total 1.576 trillion.

On November 27, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said that the situation on the global market was affecting the Ukrainian economy, and its further deterioration may lead to a cessation of the country's economic growth at the end of 2012.

"We had an economic growth target of around 3.5% (for 2012). Now we will be happy to have any growth at all at the end of the year," the prime minister said.

A week earlier, Azarov said that the Ukrainian government was finishing consultations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on determining macro indices for 2013, and was expecting GDP growth of around 3% in 2013.

"It may be higher under the optimistic scenario. If the situation on the world markets does not improve and remains unchanged, it will be a bit lower – at some 2.4-2.5%," he said.

As reported, with reference to data from the State Statistics Service, Ukraine's GDP in the third quarter of 2012 fell by 1.3% compared to the third quarter of 2011, while in the first quarter the increase was 2%, and in the second quarter - 3%.

The Ukrainian government in the national budget for 2012 foresaw growth in real GDP of 3.9% and nominal GDP – up to UAH 1.5 trillion. According to the State Statistics Service, consumer prices in Ukraine dropped by 0.3% in January-October.