Economy & Macro
The shadow economy, and the slow work of shrinking it
A large informal economy is usually described as a moral failing. It is more useful to read it as a price list: what people pay to…
Economy & Macro
Growth, inflation, the hryvnia, budgets and the macro-financial programmes that keep Ukraine's economy running.
Economy & Macro
Prozorro and the open budget
Every public tender and every budget transaction is published. For a supplier that is not a governance story; it is a research tool.
Economy & Macro
Inflation targeting, explained from a purchasing desk
What a formal inflation target actually does for a business is remove one variable from a plan, and that is worth more than it sounds.
Economy & Macro
Coming back to the international bond market
A country that has restructured its debt has to re-establish itself with investors who lost money. How that is done is a specific and repeatable process.
Economy & Macro
Deregulation, one permit at a time
The most boring reform programme in Ukraine consisted of deleting individual permits from a list. It also did more measurable good than most of the exciting…
Economy & Macro
The VAT refund register: a small change with a large effect
For years a VAT refund in Ukraine arrived when it arrived, and companies budgeted for the uncertainty. An automated public register replaced discretion with a queue…
Economy & Macro
The bank clean-up nobody enjoyed but everybody needed
Roughly half the Ukrainian banking system was closed after 2014. It was brutal, it destroyed savings, and it is the reason a functioning banking sector exists…
Economy & Macro
The central bank that became independent
A central bank that stopped financing the budget and started targeting inflation changed how every company in the country plans a year.
Economy & Macro
The end of subsidised gas, and what replaced it
For years households paid a fraction of what gas cost. Ending that was the most painful economic reform of the period and the most necessary.
Economy & Macro
Tax reform as seen by someone filing the return
Tax reform is usually described in terms of rates. For a company the rate is the least of it; the administration is what determines whether the…
Economy & Macro
How the hryvnia learned to float
A currency defended at a fixed rate looks stable until the day it is not, and then it moves by half in a fortnight. Ukraine learned…
Economy & Macro
The 2015 reform record: what was actually achieved in the worst year
The economy contracted sharply, the currency lost most of its value and the country was at war. It was also the year in which more structural…
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