The Financial and Social State of the Ukraine

¶ … Ukraine has endured many obstacles in progressing advancement within the country. Ukraine has faced an expanding economic recession last year (2014). Despite the efforts of fiscal consolidation efforts, the nation's public debt rises rapidly. Along with economic turmoil, Ukraine experienced a hard hit of security, political, as well as exchange-rate pressures since the start of 2014. Lastly, the resources available to the Ukraine are imbalanced as natural resources, industry and agriculture are unequal within the scope of resource allocation and application. From this stew of unfortunate circumstances, grows an increase lack of social services, poverty, and gender discrimination amidst a growing population.

The Ukraine has suffered several financial crises in past years. One of the earlier ones aside from the one in 2014 is 2008-2009. They have even sought help in the form of bailout money to fix their failing economy. So why does the Ukrainian economy continue to be in such a bad state? What is being done by inside and outside parties to fix it? The main reason the Ukraine is in such a bad state is because of debt. The Ukraine owes roughly $35 billion in order to pay its bills across the next two years.

Aside from owing money, the country has seen civil unrest and a shrinking economy. "The Ukrainian economy shrank 0.3% in 2013, the IMF estimates. And the months of street protests, when the barricades were up on the streets of the capital, Kiev, will also have had an effect" (BBC News, 2015). While some efforts are being made to assist the Ukraine, some believe the country can pull itself out of debt due to the small amount it owes compared to other countries like Greece. "Economic turmoil means debt is now equal to more than 100 per cent of GDP. Ukraine says its debt is unsustainable and wants investors to accept a 40 per cent write-down. But creditors argue that Ukraine's problems are temporary" (Moore, 2015).

Although the Ukraine is experiencing economic turmoil, they have been increase green energy within the country. As an article covering the topic of feed-in tariffs suggests, the existing legislation in the Ukraine has prompted growth of renewables. "Compared to other measures, feed-in tariff implementation has spurred green electricity production in Ukraine, because feed-in tariff rates are high, and grid access is guaranteed by law, a major advantage of the current legislation on renewables in Ukraine" (Trypolska, 2012, p. 645). If the Ukraine sought trade agreements with the EU and provided green energy technology, perhaps they could alleviate the financial pitfalls the country has experienced and resolve their financial crisis.

As mentioned in the introduction, protests and civil unrest has created problems for the Ukraine. Gender discrimination has increased. Although some inequality exists within the country, this does not influence vote choice in the country. "Despite the intense politicization of both ethnicity and language and the violence in eastern Ukraine vote choice has not been reduced to an ethnic or linguistic census" (Frye, 2015, p. 247). In fact, vote preference was strongly connected to economic policy orientation concerning. It seems the Ukraine would benefit greatly from the unification of trade and economic policy towards Europe instead of towards Russia.