KIEV, April 8 – Ukraine's gross domestic product will fall by 9% in 2009, with inflation being 16.4%, World Bank economist Ruslan Piontkovsky said at a press conference in Kiev.

"An improvement of the situation in Ukraine, at least at the statistical level, should be expected only in Q4," Piontkovsky said.

Late last December he gave a more optimistic forecast by the bank, with the GDP fall estimated at 4%, and inflation at 13.6%.