2014-12-02economist.com

Ukraine's problems were a long time in the making. Botched privatisations after the collapse of the Soviet Union created an oligarchic class that sucked up most of the country's wealth. In Kiev, battered Soviet-era cars and tractors can be seen on the roads alongside Ferraris. According to a report by Credit Suisse, a bank, Ukraine has the world's most uneven distribution of wealth. Even before the crisis began, the average Ukrainian was a tenth poorer than at the end of the Soviet era.

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A recent investors' conference in Kiev was a dour affair. That has had terrible knock-on effects. As investors have pulled money out of Ukraine, the hryvnia has tumbled. That makes imports more expensive. Agriculture is suffering because farmers cannot afford to buy inputs from abroad. Ukraine has depleted its foreign-exchange reserves in a desperate attempt to prop up the hryvnia: they have fallen from $18 billion to $12 billion in a matter of months. Worst of all, a weak hryvnia makes it more difficult for Ukraine to repay the $14 billion-worth of foreign debt due before the end of 2016.



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