Nominal salaries +24%, UAH continues to strengthen
The average nominal salary of Ukrainians last month was 24% higher than one year earlier, the State Statistics Service reports. This June salary — $533 a month – is 2.4 times greater than the minimum wage of UAH 6,000 [$223]. Ukraine’s yearly inflation in May was 9.5%. Partly cancelling that out, the hryvnia has increased in value against the dollar by 5% since the start of the year. The biggest average salary hike was for IT workers – up 38%.
The hryvnia has crossed the symbolic barrier of 27 to dollar, strengthening to today’s official level of 26.86. To prevent the hryvnia from overvaluing, the central bank has bought $2 billion from the population this year, Bohdan Danylyshyn, chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine Council, writes on Facebook. Bolstered by high prices for Ukraine’s major exports, the hryvnia has gained 5% against the dollar this year. Reserves are about $29 billion.
