Director of economic and social programs at the Razumkov Centre Vasyl Yurchyshyn acknowledged the growth of the economic strength index of the Ukrainian population, but predicts worsening of socio-economic stability indicators during heat deficit period.
“For the time being we have not reached the level of 2013, although we approach it to some extent. Over the next six months, it is unlikely that we will observe the continuation of such an upward dynamic, and we will have a situation, similar to 2016”, — Vasyl Yurchyshyn said at a press conference on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 in Kyiv.

According to him, based on the research there is an increase of the economic strength index of the Ukrainian population during 2017, while it has been steadily declined by the end of 2016.

Among the reasons, V. Yurchyshyn called an increase in the average nominal and real wages, as well as an increase in household incomes and an improvement of the employment situation. Moreover, an increase in wages contributed to a certain improvement of debt payment, in particular for utilities.

At the same time the expert drew attention to the worsening of the economic situation during heat deficit period, in particular due to the increase of devaluation and inflation, worsening the situation with the payments for utilities.

“We can look at 2017 in positive terms, but we cannot say with certainty that this curve has already reached a stable character. We anticipate that there will be a deterioration of the economic strength indexes and socio-economic sustainability of households during heat deficit period”, — Yurchyshyn added.

V. Yurchyshyn also noted that economic strength index was based on the 16 indicators from 4 groups, including wages and minimum social standards (40%), disproportions in income and debt (25%), savings and availability of the financial resources (30%), as well as demography and employment (5%).