According to a poll by the Razumkov Center, in January 2024, the share of those who believe that the situation will change for the better within the next three months dropped to almost 7%, which is almost half of what it was in February-March 2023, when the belief in improvement said 13% of respondents. At the same time, the share of those who believe in changes for the worse increased from 23% at the beginning of 2023 to 33% in January 2024.
Such pessimism did not arise out of nowhere. First, the war dragged on. And this causes enormous damage to the Ukrainian economy. Enterprises and infrastructure were destroyed, and logistics chains were disrupted. War creates great economic uncertainty. Business does not know what will happen tomorrow, so it does not invest in development. This slows down the growth of the economy.
The war leads to deterioration of social conditions . Poverty is increasing, the number of people in need of help is increasing. Everything could have been worse, but because of the war, about 10 million people left Ukraine, and the care of them fell on the shoulders of other states. But this means that Ukraine is losing its workforce and consumers. Another reason for pessimism is continuous corruption. It undermines people's trust in the government. And the icing on the cake is uncertainty with financial aid from the US, which is vital for the Ukrainian budget.
To boost the economic expectations of Ukrainians, the government needs to support business so that it can create new jobs and invest in development. And not to abandon people who suffered from the war so that they can return to a normal life.
