2008-2009 Ukrainian financial crisis

Ukraine was hit heavily by the late-2000s recession, the World Bank expects Ukraine's economy to shrink 15% in 2009 with inflation being 16.4%.

The deficit of Ukraine's foreign trade in goods and services January through September 2009 was estimated at $1.08 billion, which was 9.5 times down on the same period in 2008, export of goods over the period decreased by 48.7%, to $27.478 billion, while imports fell by 53.5%, to $31.570 billion; export of services dropped by 23.2%, to $6.841 billion, while imports were down by 19.9%, to $3.829 billion (the deficit of Ukraine's foreign trade over the first nine months of 2008 was estimated at $10.284 billion, which was 2.7 times up on the same period of 2007).

According to a forecast by the State Employment Center unemployment in Ukraine will triple to 9% in 2009 (there was 3% unemployment at the end of 2008), which would mean about 3 million people will apply for employment services. In September 2009 the official level of unemployment was 1.9%. 95% of the population of Ukraine have felt influence of the financial crisis; in July 2009 21% of them stated that "The crisis has a catastrophic impact on me and my family", this figure dropped to 17% in October 2009. Actual year-on-year wages in Ukraine fell in October 2009 by 10.9%, while in October 2008 it grew by 4.8% year-over-year according to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. The real incomes for Ukrainians in 2009 fell down 8.5% while the nominal income went up 6.2%. The Ukrainian economy shrank 15 percent in 2009. The second Tymoshenko Government had predicted GDP growth of 0.4% in 2009 and a slowdown in inflation to 9.5% (also in 2009), although the overwhelming majority of economists considered this forecast to be excessively optimistic.

The Ukrainian economy recovered in the first quarter of 2010.

Analysts say the reasons for the crises are slumping steel prices, local banking problems and the cutting of Russian gas supply of January 2009. This made key industries such as metallurgy and machine building lay off workers, and real wages started to fall for the first time in a decade.

...
Wikipedia