IMF finds decrease in Ukraine’s purchasing power

According to figures released by the International Monetary Fund, in 2019, Ukrainians had significantly less purchasing power than Russians, Belarussians, and Poles. Purchasing power parity is the rate at which the currency of one country would have to be converted into that of another country to buy the same amount of goods and services in each country.
In 2019, Ukraine’s per capita income (PCI) stood at $9,700, which was 71.5% and 50% down from Poland ($33,991) and Belarus ($20,600) respectively. In 2019, domestic purchasing power parity in Poland increased by 7.70 % on its 2018 rate to $33,891. Ukraine only slightly outranks Morocco with PCI at US$9,200, the IMF figures for 2019 found.
Ukraine already meets the IMF’s requirements for an expanded three-year funding program, central bank chief Dmitry Sologub said, and added: “During the meeting with the Fund’s representatives at the NBU, we discussed common issues: economic growth, inflation dynamics, monetary policy, and the state of the banking system. The IMF has no questions at all about us: the National Bank is achieving its monetary policy goals”.
IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine Goesta Ljungman said that the country needs to ensure a growth by an average of 6% per year over the course of 20 years in order to catch up with the neighboring economies.
“We agreed that in the coming weeks, absolutely all regional heads will be replaced in order to combat the shadow economy… In the coming weeks we will seriously complicate the lives of people who are engaged in tax evasion – this is a serious problem for the Ukrainian economy”, Ukraine’s prime minister Oleksiy Honcharuk announced.