“The Wall Street Journal”: Backed by quick government action

Ukraine's economy stabilizes after adjusting to war

Commercial activity increased in areas far from the front lines of the war.

From the source

With the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war last February, the revenues of the Ukrainian shipping company, Nova Pushta, fell to 2% from the pre-war level.

And the owner of the company, Vyacheslav Klimov, warned - at the time - that "his company could disappear."

But during the spring e-commerce resumed in the country, business activity increased in areas far from the front lines of the war, and shipments returned to grow by 90% from the pre-war level of one million parcels per day.

The Wall Street Journal reported that although the Ukrainian economy was damaged by the war, it is starting to stabilize after the collapse caused by the war, thanks to a combination of quick measures and flexible response of Ukrainian companies, as well as the strengthening of Ukraine's military position.

The head of the Kyiv School of Economics, Timofey Milovanov, said that "the economic conditions are bad, but stable, as the economy seemed to adapt," explaining that the main factor in this is the military aspect, as Russia's withdrawal from the region around Kiev, and the Ukrainian counter-attacks, created a A measure of certainty about the resumption of economic activity in the part not controlled by Russia.

Milovanov added that the Central Bank of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance took quick steps to support the economy, including pegging the Ukrainian currency to the dollar at a level that did not allow for high import costs and inflation, and the Central Bank printed money to pay government debts.

Over the past months, the government has reduced business taxes and suspended sales taxes and import duties, providing an incentive to ease imports of consumer goods.

Kyiv gradually restored taxes as economic activity stabilized.

As the war drags on, winter will bring new hardships to the Ukrainian people, including high heating costs and fears of natural gas shortages.

The failure of Ukraine's Western allies, especially the European Union, to send promised funding to Ukraine to plug the huge budget deficit, leaves Kyiv dangerously dependent on printing money, causing an inflation rate of more than 20%.

Since the start of the war, Russia has threatened to cut off supplies of gasoline, diesel and crude oil to Ukraine, which come by land from Russia and its ally Belarus or from the Black Sea, prompting officials to buy new supplies of gasoline and diesel and pay for them in cash in advance, to European suppliers.

Nevertheless, signs of recovery began in the Ukrainian labor market shortly after the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kyiv.

Careers

The number of vacancies in Ukraine's largest recruitment site reached more than 40,000 jobs last August, compared to about 100,000 vacancies in February before the war.

The CEO of Work.ua, Artur Michno, said the vacancies show the geographic shift taking place in the Ukrainian economy.

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