(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Daryna Krasnolutska – November 20, 2014) Valentyna is thankful for the two pensions she and her husband share, even if Ukraine’s inflation shock means they’re no longer enough to buy medicine and meat.
“We have some potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers from our dacha,” said the 72-year-old pensioner as she made her way through the city of Zhytomyr, a two-hour bus ride west of Kiev. “I can’t imagine how people survive on a single pension. We can’t even go to the drug store. We try to use herbs instead.”
>From Lviv, near the Polish border, to Kharkiv, 1,000 kilometers (650 miles) east in Russia’s shadow, Ukrainians are grappling with the world’s worst-performing currency, inflation that’s rocketed to 20 percent and the deepest recession in five years. The plight of Zhytomyr’s 270,000 residents shows how bailout-mandated austerity and the strains of an eight-month insurgency are playing out in everyday life.
Across the street from the city’s Soviet-era department store, the central open-air market sells food, clothes and toys. Traders huddle next to signs offering to buy pumpkin seeds, nuts, rabbit pelts, feathers and beans from producers who’ve traveled from nearby villages.
Locals are cutting back because of this year’s 48 percent plunge in the hryvnia, a decline that’s eroded purchasing power. The inflation rate spiked to 19.8 percent last month as the currency’s slide boosted the costs of imported goods from gasoline to fruit.
Complete story at - Medicine and Meat Out of Reach Amid Ukrainian Price Shock | Johnson's Russia List
“We have some potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers from our dacha,” said the 72-year-old pensioner as she made her way through the city of Zhytomyr, a two-hour bus ride west of Kiev. “I can’t imagine how people survive on a single pension. We can’t even go to the drug store. We try to use herbs instead.”
>From Lviv, near the Polish border, to Kharkiv, 1,000 kilometers (650 miles) east in Russia’s shadow, Ukrainians are grappling with the world’s worst-performing currency, inflation that’s rocketed to 20 percent and the deepest recession in five years. The plight of Zhytomyr’s 270,000 residents shows how bailout-mandated austerity and the strains of an eight-month insurgency are playing out in everyday life.
Across the street from the city’s Soviet-era department store, the central open-air market sells food, clothes and toys. Traders huddle next to signs offering to buy pumpkin seeds, nuts, rabbit pelts, feathers and beans from producers who’ve traveled from nearby villages.
Locals are cutting back because of this year’s 48 percent plunge in the hryvnia, a decline that’s eroded purchasing power. The inflation rate spiked to 19.8 percent last month as the currency’s slide boosted the costs of imported goods from gasoline to fruit.
Complete story at - Medicine and Meat Out of Reach Amid Ukrainian Price Shock | Johnson's Russia List
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