During the last decade Ukraine has enjoyed strong economic performance, with the average annual GDP growth of 7%, driven by export expansion and strong domestic demand. However, the global financial crisis, which affected the country since Q4 2008, has reversed the trend. Due to lower external demand, steel export volume contracted by 57% YoY in January-May 2009. This depressed the industrial production by 31% YoY in H1 2009. Due to the credit crunch and reduced demand from the public sector, construction fell sharply - by 55% in the same period. All these induced a significant decline of GDP in H1 2009 (by 19%).