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Ukrainian 2001 GDP grows record nine pct

KIEV, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Ukraine posted record economic growth last year, fuelled by a rise in industrial output, stronger exports and a good harvest but the expansion is expected to slow down in 2002, the government said on Tuesday.

Serhiy Samoilenko, an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Vasyl Rohovy, told Reuters gross domestic product grew by nine percent in 2001 after a 5.8 percent rise the previous year.

Ukraine suffered almost a decade of recession after independence from Moscow in 1991.

GDP growth was supported by a record 14.2 percent rise in industrial production. Annual inflation plunged to 6.1 percent in 2001 after 25.8 percent in 2000.

The central bank's main refinancing rate is at an all-time low of 12.5 percent, while hard currency reserves reached a record high of $3.2 billion at the end of the last year.

Ukraine, which was once known as the breadbasket of the Soviet Union but then saw its agricultural sector crumble, harvested its best grain harvest in many years in 2001.

The crop totalled 39.7 million tonnes after 24.4 million tonnes a year earlier.

The government is less upbeat for 2002 however. Earlier this month, President Leonid Kuchma questioned his government's forecast of six percent economic growth for 2002 and said several critical questions needed to be resolved.

Ukraine has so far failed to unlock vital aid from the International Monetary Fund under a $2.6 billion loan programme. The two sides are arguing over tax reform and a lack of transparency on the energy market.

The government is also facing looming U.S. trade sanctions in retaliation for the continued piracy of music compact discs and other media products.

Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh has said the first quarter of the year would be hard due to global economic slowdown which would hit exporters, the backbone of the recovery. Exporters account for around half of Ukraine's gross domestic product.

Kinakh has said the government's main task this year will be to develop the domestic market, but purchasing power in the country of 49 million people remains low. Monthly salaries average $40.