Among the countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) was just 0.9 percent from October 2013 to October 2014, with the turmoil in Ukraince cited as the biggest reason for the slowdown.

The conclusions regarding the economic situation in the Ukraine are from the Research Department of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), published in the most recent issue of The CIS Macromonitor.

Economic activity in the country has declined more than 4.5 percent from October 2013, while household consumption, investment and exports continued to shrink. At the same time, the consumer price index rose in the double digits – 11.5 percent from October 2013 to October 2014.

EDB experts wrote that the process was “initially formed by purely economic factors (the impossibility to further finance the external imbalance and budget deficit), accelerated and scaled up because of the military conflict in the country.”

They report that the decline in household consumption is expected to continue and that they believe the GDP could decrease by up to 10 percent in 2014. But, if the political situation improves and the country receives outside financial support the economy could improve.