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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nTourism both internal and external plays major roles in the economies of cities such as Kyiv, Lviv and Odessa, in addition to less internationally but definitely nationally known cities such as Khamianets Podilsky, Uzhhorod, Chernivtsi, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in recent years has been a major IT boom. The IT exports in fact are still growing<\/a>.\u00a0 I came to the realisation this is a fantastic aspect of an economy for a country at threat of invasion, as it does not rely on physical location. The russians can capture and bomb fields or factories, but an IT company can move internally or abroad, yet still contribute to the Ukrainian economy by providing remote jobs, and paying taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The IT sector does involve a lot of outsourcing, however, this is not to mean that poorly paid low level jobs are sent overseas. Rather, we have entire teams and companies developing products, and developers are paid good salaries, not just in Ukraine, but frankly, comfortably in much of Europe. Senior devs can earn around 6K a month, for example. Additionally, there are start-ups providing their own services, hardware companies, and many others, who may have clients all over the world. I have quite often heard people who don’t work in IT make jokes about those that do as \u201cOh, they work in IT, la dee dah\u201d.\u00a0 The reality is of course for many service jobs, factory jobs, tourist jobs, and of course government jobs, the salaries are very low, and due to the rising UAH\/USD rate, inflation, and job scarcity in some regions, It’s got even harder for many.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, aside from IT, how is the economy doing? The statistics are a bit confusing too, with some predicting a loss of growth of GDP, whereas others downplay it. Look in this article<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMaria R\u0435pko, deputy director of the Center for Economic Strategy, told about it during the discussion \u00abWill the Ukrainian economy be able to grow in 2023?\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main estimates of the consensus forecast in 2023 look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The estimates are based on the assumption by half of those surveyed that the war will continue throughout the current year and end the hot phase in mid-to-late 2023. Also, all interviewees assume that the grain corridor will work during the current year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The consensus forecast is based on the estimates of seven analytical teams, including Dragon Capital, ICU, Concorde Capital, Morgan Stanley, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In turn, the deputy chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine Serhii Nikolaychuk reminded that in January the NBU worsened its forecast from 4% to 0.3%. At the same time, according to him, the situation in the first and second quarters of 2023 will be better than the NBU\u2019s forecast, thanks to high stability and effective repairs in the Ukrainian energy sector, as well as warm weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Economy Oleksiy Sobolev noted that the ministry estimates the GDP growth forecast at 1% (instead of 3.2% earlier) and improved the inflation forecast to 24% (28%). The estimates of the Ministry of Economy are based on the assumption that hostilities will last almost a whole year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we see other indications of growth, for example, “Ukraine\u2019s economy is projected to grow by 0.5% this year, following a staggering contraction of 29.2% in 2022, the year of Russia\u2019s invasion of the country\u201d this is according <\/a>to the World Bank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The growth is mostly pinned on the grain corridor and agricultural export. A huge part of Ukraine\u2019s economy. Generally, it seems, compared to last year the economy is recovering, though we won\u2019t likely see much growth. Considering a full scale war is on, I\u2019d say that\u2019s relatively decent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But how does it feel <\/em>living day to day? Now, this massively varies from city to city. Take everything <\/em>I saw here as subjective. In places like Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, where the war has been very brutal, many industries were damaged, farmland mined, and many people are struggling to make ends meet the same way they did before.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Kyiv, in Lviv, in Uzhhorod, things seem closer to normal. Winter was difficult for many businesses with power cuts on top of sirens disrupting their abilities to operate, however. Yet, not only are most places surviving, some businesses are thriving. It does depend somewhat on the business, but in my recent visit to Kyiv, there are plenty of shops, restaurants, bars etc still, busy, with people, living day-to-day life in that act of defiance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n I generally find Ukrainian service to be very good, even now. I wonder if it’s in part due to the relatively light degree of worker protections and regulations, ensuring workers remain in their jobs by doing the best possible service, or maybe it’s just hospitality. It is definitely generational though, with some older people from the communist era not exactly the most considerate of customer service sometimes. Still, I find much worse customer service in other parts of Eastern Europe than in Ukraine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jjplace.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-2-1024x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe State of the Ukrainian Economy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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My Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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