Overview: 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 1992 the Ukrainian Government liberalized most prices and erected a legal framework for privatizing state enterprises while retaining many central economic controls and continuing subsidies to state production enterprises. In November 1992 the new Prime Minister KUCHMA launched a new economic reform program promising more freedom to the agricultural sector, faster privatization of small and medium enterprises, and stricter control over state subsidies. In 1993, however, severe internal political disputes over the scope and pace of economic reform and payment arrears on energy imports have led to further declines in output, and inflation of 50% or more per month by the last quarter. In first quarter 1994, national income and industrial output were less than two-thirds the first quarter 1993 figures, according to official statistics. At the same time an increasing number of people are developing small private businesses and exploiting opportunities in non-official markets. Even so, the magnitude of the problems and the slow pace in building new market-oriented institutions preclude a near-term recovery of output to the 1990 level. A vital economic concern in 1994 will continue to be Russia's decisions on the prices and quantities of oil and gas to be shipped to the Ukraine.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $205.4 billion (1993 estimate from the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as extrapolated to 1993 using official Ukrainian statistics, which are very uncertain because of major economic changes since 1990)

National product real growth rate: -16% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $3,960 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 45% per month (1993)

Unemployment rate: 0.4% officially registered; large number of unregistered or underemployed workers

Budget:
revenues: $NA
expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Exports: $3 billion to countries outside of the FSU (1993)
commodities: coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, chemicals, machinery and transport equipment, grain, meat
partners: FSU countries, Germany, China, Austria

Imports: $2.2 billion from outside of the FSU countries (1993)
commodities: machinery and parts, transportation equipment, chemicals, textiles
partners: FSU countries, Germany, China, Austria

External debt: $NA

Industrial production: growth rate -14% (1993); accounts for 50% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 55,882,000 kW
production: 281 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 5,410 kWh (1992)

Industries: coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, food-processing (especially sugar)

Agriculture: accounts for about 25% of GDP; grain, vegetables, meat, milk, sugar beets

Illicit drugs: illicit cultivator of cannabis and opium poppy; mostly for CIS consumption; limited government eradication program; used as transshipment points for illicit drugs to Western Europe

Economic aid: $350 million economic aid and $350 million to help disassemble the atomic weapons from the US in 1994

Currency: 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-1994
Exchange rates: NA

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Ukraine on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Ukraine Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Ukraine Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.