The State Statistics Committee (SSC) announced on Friday, that Ukraine’s GDP grew 6.2% yoy in 9M up 0.5% from 8M06, thanks mainly to strong industrial output figures. The government’s GDP forecast for 2006 is 5.8%. Alexander Viktorov: Friday’s GDP announcement comes on the back of good news about industrial output (up 5.5% yoy in 9M driven by the steel and chemical sectors) from the State Statistics Committee. Last week the SSC also released updated data showing GDP growth at 7.3% yoy in 2Q, up 0.4 % from the provisional data released earlier. We maintain our 2006 GDP forecast at 6.5%.