David Malaher: “Re: Oct. 16, 2018 #41: IMF ranks Ukraine as Europe’s poorest country”

International Monetary Fund Logo Over Ukraine Flag

Subject: Oct. 16, 2018 #41: IMF ranks Ukraine as Europe’s poorest country
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2018
From: David Malaher <david@malaher.org>
To: David Johnson <davidjohnson@starpower.net>

I try to follow Ukraine news through the Johnson List, among other sources. I visited Ukraine in June, touring through nine cities from Liviv to Odessa via a combination automobile and boat (on the Dnieper River).

The report on October 16, item #41, that the GDP per capita was in the order of $2,900 US, lower even that Moldova, was startling until I checked the figure against other sources. The normal calculation of GDP per capita would give a figure closer to $8,000, which is where it has been since 2014.

I could not see evidence of such a low GDP per capita as $2,900, even allowing for the exhausting effects of corruption everywhere and inefficiency in transportation. The $2,900 figure is a special calculation that should not be cited in the usual context which shows Russia with a GDP per capita around $27,000 and the USA around $59,000. Presenting a figure such as $2,900 only serves to make a bad situation impossibly worse.

As we know, and your valuable daily list shows it, different people will come up with special calculations and interpretations of economic performance to suit their own agenda. I would like to see a report of GDP per capita from a conventional source such as the IMF, WB or CIA. The IMF has another scale that is more meaningful. Could you please watch for something in the next week or so that will put the Ukraine GDP per capita back in its relatively proper position?

Reports on Ukraine corruption and wilful inefficiency would be very welcome. This period of six months before the Ukraine general election at the end of March 2019 would be a good time to shame the Ukraine people as a whole into realizing that they are their own biggest problem.

Last and very weakly at the bottom of the economic ladder of former USSR economies 25 years after independence is shameful for a country of 40 million educated people.

David Malaher

Johnson List, October 16, 2018
#41
Intellinews.com
October 12, 2018
IMF ranks Ukraine as Europe’s poorest country

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

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