Forecast: Ukraine 2009 GDP to drop 15 pct.

KIEV, Ukraine, July 17 (UPI) -- The World Bank has downgraded once again its forecast for Ukraine's 2009 decline of the gross domestic product to 15 percent, economists said Friday.

In April, economists of the World Bank downgraded Ukraine's GDP for all of 2009 to 9 percent from an original 4 percent January forecast.

Ruslan Piontkivsky, a senior World Bank economist, told a news conference in Kiev Thursday the forecast was lowered from 9 percent to 15 percent, mainly because of a considerable drop in Ukraine's exports of metals, the Ukrinform news agency said.

Piontkivsky said Ukraine's GDP is expected to grow 1 percent in 2010, 3.5 percent in 2011, and is likely to be followed with an annual GDP rise from 4 percent to 5 percent.