Flag description: two equal horizontal bands of azure (top) and golden yellow represent grainfields under a blue sky
Economy
Economy - overview: After Russia, the Ukrainian republic was far and away the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union, producing about four 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. Shortly after the implosion of the USSR in December 1991, the Ukrainian Government liberalized most prices and erected a legal framework for privatization, but widespread resistance to reform within the government and the legislature soon stalled reform efforts and led to some backtracking. Output in 1992-96 fell precipitously to less than half the 1991 level. Loose monetary policies pushed inflation to hyperinflationary levels in late 1993. Since his election in July 1994, President KUCHMA has pushed a comprehensive economic reform program, maintained financial discipline, and tried to remove almost all remaining controls over prices and foreign trade. Implementation of KUCHMA's economic agenda is encountering considerable resistance from parliament, entrenched bureaucrats, and industrial interests. However, if KUCHMA succeeds in implementing aggressive market reforms during 1997, the economy should reverse its downward trend, with real growth occurring by late 1997 and into 1998.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $161.1 billion (1996 estimate as extrapolated from World Bank estimate for 1994)
GDP - real growth rate: -10% (1996 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $3,170 (1996 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture : 14% industry: 45% services: 41% (1995 est.)
Inflation rate - consumer price index: 40% (yearend 1996)
Labor force: total: 23 million (January 1996) by occupation: industry and construction 33%, agriculture and forestry 21%, health, education, and culture 16%, trade and distribution 7%, transport and communication 7%, other 16% (1992)
Unemployment rate: 1% officially registered; large number of unregistered or underemployed workers (December 1996)