The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Monday lowered its 2013 GDP growth projection for Ukraine to 1 percent.
The downward revision, from the 2.5 percent projected in October, was due to "the influence of a complex external environment and domestic policy uncertainties in several important areas," the bank said in an online statement.
Meanwhile, the bank also changed its estimate of Ukraine's GDP growth rate for 2012 to zero, down from the 1 percent predicted in October.
The EBRD attributed the changes to the slowdown of the Ukrainian economy in the last two quarters of 2012, especially the acceleration of decline in industrial production in December.
Ukraine's economy shrank by 1.3 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2012.
Last week, the World Bank downgraded its outlook for the growth of the Ukrainian economy in 2013 from 3.5 percent to 2.2 percent.
The Ukrainian government announced earlier that its target growth rate for 2013 is 3.4 percent./.