Government officials said in March that GDP growth could reach 5.1 percent this year, adding that sustained annual growth of 1-2 percent required additional investments in the economy of at least $3 billion. In 2020, Ukraine’s economy contracted by 4.2 percent.

In April, Ukraine’s central bank downgraded its forecast for real GDP growth in 2021 to 3.8 percent from 4.2 percent.

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the tax amnesty law that creates incentives to remove income hidden from taxation from the shadows and will help attract additional resources to the economy, his press service said.

The law sets a one-time voluntary declaration of assets of individuals, which will take place from September 1, 2021 to September 1, 2022.

Citizens of Ukraine will have the right to file this declaration indicating the assets that belong to them and from which taxes and fees have not been paid before January 1, 2021. In this case, the voluntary declaration will not need to indicate information about the sources of origin of the declared assets.

The declarant may indicate among the assets currency values ​​(except for cash), securities, movable and immovable property, including construction in progress, shares in the property of legal entities located in Ukraine or abroad.

From the declared assets the citizen will have to pay a 5 percent fee on currency values ​​on accounts in banks in Ukraine, and also other assets which are registered in the country; 9 percent fee on currency values ​​on accounts in foreign financial institutions, as well as on other assets located abroad; 2.5 percent fee of the nominal value of government bonds of Ukraine purchased in the period from September 1, 2021 to August 31, 2022.

Ukraine’s Economy Ministry said last month that the level of the shadow economy amounted to 30 percent of the GDP, 3 percent more than in 2019, due to the coronavirus.

The World Bank raised its growth forecast for Ukraine this year to 3.8 percent. In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its forecast for Ukraine’s growth this year to 4 percent from a previous projection of 3 percent issued last October. The new figure, published in the Fund’s World Economic Outlook, also forecasts 3.4 percent growth for 2022.