War-torn Ukraine on Tuesday reported a drop of nearly a quarter in workers' real wages due to spiralling inflation and a sharp devaluation of the currency earlier this year. The state statistics service said wages - when calculated in hard currency terms and adjusted for consumer price changes - fell by 23.5 percent when comparing the first three months of this year to the same period in 2014.
The hryvnia currency has lost about 65 percent of its value since the ex-Soviet state's political crisis and subsequent war with pro-Russian insurgents in the separatist east broke out 18 months ago. Consumer prices jumped by nearly 30 percent last year and are projected to grow even faster in 2015. The resulting slowdown in consumer spending and foreign investment saw Ukraine's first quarter gross domestic product contract by 17.2 percent in annual terms.