World Bank to give Ukraine additional USD 10 m loan to improve statistics system

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has approved a USD 10 million Additional Financing loan for the Development of the State Statistics System for Monitoring the Social and Economic Transformation Project (DEVSTAT) in Ukraine, the World Bank's office in Ukraine has told UKRINFORM.

«The project has been assisting the State Statistics Service of Ukraine by developing a statistical system in accordance with international standards,» reads the press release.

«Reliable and timely statistics are not only vital for monitoring a country's development, but also critical for evidence-based policy making,» Qimiao Fan, World Bank Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, said. «This additional financing will help Ukraine roll out the implementation of a modernized statistical system in line with international standards across the country,» he added.

DEVSTAT project has already contributed to the development and improvement of methodologies on sector statistics, government financial statistics, balance of payments, monetary and banking statistics.

A new forecasting model has been elaborated and is being used by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The Integrated Statistical Data Processing System has been designed and currently is under development and testing.

The Additional Financing will help the State Statistics Service of Ukraine to follow up on the implementation of the Integrated Statistical Data Processing System by rolling it out across the country.

The project is fully consistent with the new Country Partnership Strategy for Ukraine for the period 2012-2016. Since Ukraine joined the World Bank in 1992, commitments to the country total about USD 8 billion for 42 operations.

Adapted from Ukrinform