Poll: 60% of Ukrainians suffer financial losses from economic shutdown

More than half of Ukrainians have been earning less money since Ukraine imposed a nationwide quarantine meant to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus across the country, according to polling company Info Sapiens.

The poll, which surveyed 800 randomly selected Ukrainians and was published on March 31, showed that 60% of the working population has been earning much less recently: 16% of Ukrainians have temporarily lost their source of income, 38% are being paid less and 14% lost their jobs outright.

With the government asking the public to stay at home, only a quarter of Ukrainians continues to work remotely and earn a regular salary, the poll says.

Meanwhile, according to another poll conducted by Rating on April 1, 35% of Ukrainians continue to work mostly as usual despite quarantine restrictions, 29% work remotely, 32% have resigned and 4% have lost their jobs. Additionally, 60% of respondents said that their savings would last less than a month without income.

As a result, Ukraine’s unemployment figures have soared by 500,000 people, reaching a total of 700,000 unemployed in the country, according to Gennadiy Chyzhykov, president of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Speaking with journalists on March 28, Chyzhykov said that around 3.5 million Ukrainians work unofficially, with 1 million working in sectors that have de facto been closed down due to the quarantine.

Another survey conducted jointly by the American Chamber of Commerce and financial consulting company Deloitte with over a hundred representatives from Ukraine’s business community and published on March 19, showed that almost a quarter (23%) of companies plan to decrease manpower. Still, about 60% of companies remain more optimistic: 47% of them plan to maintain their headcount and 13% want to hire even more personnel.

However, a third of the survey respondents said that over half of their company staff would not be able to work remotely, while 18% of them – mostly companies employing less than 200 people – said their staffers could telework.

Meanwhile, beyond the tentative $8-billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine received pledges of an extra 40 million euros from the European Investment Bank, 80 million euros from the European Commission, and $1.2 million from the United States,

On March 30, the Ministry of Economy published its new macroeconomic prognosis for the country. It estimates that Ukraine’s gross domestic product could fall by 3.9%, the unemployment rate will grow to 9.4% (instead of the expected 8.1%) and real wages will fall by 0.3%.

But if the quarantine is prolonged for several more months, Ukraine’s GDP could fall even further – by 9% – and the hryvnia might depreciate to Hr 35 per $1, according to a joint statement of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, the European Business Association and other business associations.