KYIV, Nov 2 – The Business Activity Outlook Index (BAOI), calculated by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), in October decreased by 1.6 percentage points (p.p.) to 47.8 after growing in September (by 1.5 p.p.) and August (by 1 p.p.), but remains below the neutral value of 50 points and signals the prevalence of pessimistic business expectations.

"After several months of positive dynamics, the expectations of enterprises have worsened again... One of the key factors for the deterioration of the expectations is the increase in the number of coronavirus cases," Director of the Statistics and Reporting Department Yuriy Polovniov said in a video message posted on his Facebook page on Monday.