. Index
. 1996 Index
. Flag
. Geography
. People
. Government
. Economy
. Transportation
. Commun'tions
. Defense
. Geo Names
. Feedback
===========
|
Ukraine Economy 1996
After Russia, the Ukrainian republic was far and away the most important
economic component of the former Soviet Union, producing more than three
times the output of the next-ranking republic. Its fertile black soil
generated more than one-fourth of Soviet agricultural output, and its farms
provided substantial quantities of meat, milk, grain, and vegetables to
other republics. Likewise, its diversified heavy industry supplied equipment
and raw materials to industrial and mining sites in other regions of the
former USSR. In early 1992, the Ukrainian government liberalized most prices
and erected a legal framework for privatization, but widespread resistance
to reform within the government and the legislature soon stalled reform
efforts and led to some backtracking. Loose monetary and fiscal policies
pushed inflation to hyperinflationary levels in late 1993. Greater monetary
and fiscal restraint lowered inflation in 1994, but also contributed to an
accelerated decline in industrial output. Since his election in July 1994,
President KUCHMA has developed - and parliament has approved - a
comprehensive economic reform program, maintained financial discipline, and
reduced state controls over prices, the exchange rate, and foreign trade.
Implementation of KUCHMA's economic agenda will encounter considerable
resistance from parliament, entrenched bureaucrats, and industrial interests
and will contribute to further declines in output and rising unemployment
which will sorely test the government's ability to stay the course on reform
in 1995.
GDP - purchasing power parity - $189.2 billion (1994 estimate as
extrapolated from World Bank estimate for 1992)
-
National product real growth rate:
-
National product per capita:
-
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
0.4% officially registered; large number of unregistered or underemployed
workers
$NA, including capital expenditures of $NA
coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, chemicals, machinery
and transport equipment, grain, meat
FSU countries, China, Italy, Switzerland
energy, machinery and parts, transportation equipment, chemicals, textiles
FSU countries, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic
$7.5 billion (yearend 1994)
growth rate -28% (1994 est.); accounts for 50% of GDP
coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, machinery and transport
equipment, chemicals, food-processing (especially sugar)
accounts for about 25% of GDP; grain, vegetables, meat, milk, sugar beets
illicit cultivator of cannabis and opium poppy; mostly for CIS consumption;
limited government eradication program; used as transshipment point for
illicit drugs to Western Europe
$550 million economic aid and $350 million to help disassemble the atomic
weapons from the US in 1994
Ukraine withdrew the Russian ruble from circulation on 12 November 1992 and
declared the karbovanets (plural karbovantsi) sole legal tender in Ukrainian
markets; Ukrainian officials claim this is an interim move toward
introducing a new currency - the hryvnya - possibly in mid-1995
karbovantsi per 1$US - 107,900 (end December 1994), 130,000 (April 1994)
|
|
