KIEV, September 13 (RIA Novosti) - An interpreter's mistake during the Yalta European Strategy (YES) forum in Kiev on Saturday raised brows among the media as they reported the head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU)'s economic forecast for the nation, which predicted a historic 90-percent inflation by the year-end.
"Indeed, we noticed reports that mentioned a totally absurd inflation rate of 90 percent by the end of 2014. The NBU head, who spoke English, mentioned the figure of 19 percent. After investigating the circumstances, we came to the conclusion that an error must have slipped in during the English-to-Ukrainian translation of the online broadcast on the [forum] website," a source, close to the forum organizers confessed to RIA Novosti.
Earlier in the day, NBU Chairwoman Valeria Hontareva was quoted as saying that "unfortunately, the devaluation in our country has reached over 60 percent compared to the previous year, the inflation – 90 percent."
The National Bank of Ukraine has not yet responded to RIA Novosti's request to comment on the incident.
Ukraine's economy has been suffering as a result of the crisis in the country, with a standoff between government forces and independence supporters in the southeastern regions. Kiev also has a significant gas debt which its gas company Naftogaz owes to Russian gas giant Gazprom and which is estimated to stand at over $5.3 billion.
