Nearly every fourth resident of Ukraine is below poverty line – World Bank

The poverty rate in Ukraine last year increased from 5.5% to 24.2%, which means 7.1 million people are now below the poverty line. This is stated in the report of the World Bank, writes The Guardian. In Ukraine, food, fuel and services have risen sharply - some of them by 50%.

"With unemployment unofficially at 36% and inflation hitting 26.6% at the end of 2022, in the future, more and more Ukrainians may be below the poverty line," says Arup Banerji, regional country director of the institution for Eastern Europe.

As for the level of poverty, a large gap is observed between cities and villages. The most tangible consequences of impoverishment are precisely in rural areas. Economist Olena Bilan said that the situation could have been even worse without a huge package of financial support from the international community.

"We've seen GDP decline by 30% in large part because Ukraine exports 80% of its goods through ports it no longer has access to. We've had inflation of 26% - again which could have been worse - but people's salaries have also been flat and the currency has devalued against the dollar by 20%," she told reporters.

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Bilan added that the issue of employment remains the most problematic in this situation.

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