KIEV, Dec. 15 – The pace of annual real GDP growth in 2008 will slow to 3.5%-4% compared to a 5.8% rise over the first 10 months of 2008, Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn told Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper.

The minister said that the slow will be due to the production fall through constriction of the foreign markets and the decline in domestic demand due to the limited access to credits, the freezing of own companies' funds in stocks of ready-made products and payments on credits without a possibility to refinance them.

He said that the conditions for exports will worsen, first in the metals and chemical sectors.

Danylyshyn expects that production in the metals sector will fall by 10%, in the chemical sectors – by 3% and coke and fuel processing sectors – by 18.2%. The minister also forecasts a slow in engineering growth.