The International Monetary Fund announced yesterday in its World Economic Outlook report that it has upgraded its forecasts for GDP and CPI growth in Ukraine for 2007 and 2008. The IMF’s new 2007 forecast for GDP growth was revised to 6.7% from 5.0% (vs. our estimate of 7.3%); average yearly inflation – 11.5% from 11.3% (vs. our projection of 12.0%). In 2008, the IMF is now forecasting a 5.4% rise in GDP and the CPI to increase by 10.6%, compared to our forecasts of 6.8% and 9.0% respectively. In contrast, the report lowered the IMF’s view on Russian and Global economic growth next year, dropping its 2008 GDP growth estimate for the Russian Federation from 6.8% to 6.5% and global forecast from 5.2% to 4.8%. The IMF also upgraded its projection of Ukraine’s 2007 current account deficit from 4.1% of GDP to 3.5%, which is in line with our forecast.