Restrictions apply for goods such as cooking oil, flour and sugar, Ukraine's news agency UNN reports Wednesday. Retailers may sell no more than two bottles of sunflower oil, and two packs of buckwheat per customer and, depending on the store, from 3 to 5 kilograms of flour and sugar.
Bread, rice, potatoes, meat and milk are not yet rationed, but are not so plentiful on supermarket shelves.
Stores have also seen higher demand for household appliances, as people consider consumer electronics an investment as prices increase on a daily basis, RIA reports. Inflation in Ukraine is expected to reach 27 percent by the end of 2015.
Hryvnia's fall
The rush to buy was triggered by the dramatic depreciation of Ukraine's hryvnia which lost 70 percent of its value against other currencies in just a year. The conflict in Eastern Ukraine and international reserves only enough to last for two months, are among the key reasons for the hryvnia's fall.
The devaluation accelerated after the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) let the hryvnia free float in early February.
incredible fall of ukr hryvnia #Ukraine thanks to #euromaidan pic.twitter.com/HPWtP3bHkYโ Nadia Nadia (@NadezhdaAle) February 24, 2015
Ukraine is currently in a deep political crisis reflected in its economy and budget. The country is balancing on the brink of default. Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk says Ukraine's task for 2015 is "to survive" and that all people would face tough challenges no matter what their place in society. According to the NBU the country's GDP plunged by 7.5 percent in 2014.
The minimum weekly wage in Ukraine is less than $43 (1,218 hryvnia) which is lower than in Bangladesh, Ghana and Zambia ($46.6)
The official exchange rate set by the National Bank for February 24 is 28.29 hryvnia to the dollar and 31.96 to the euro. Exchange offices sell the dollar at more than 40 hryvnia and the euro at about 50.
In an attempt to stop the currency's free fall the National Bank of Ukraine stepped up its currency controls Wednesday, preventing banks from buying any foreign currency for clients this week and limiting what they could buy for themselves.
Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk criticized the decision saying it doesn't add stability to the Ukrainian economy.
"This morning I learned that the NBU on its own, without consultation, decided to close the interbank market that surely doesn't add stability to hryvnia," he said talking at Wednesday's Cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for the head of the NBU Valeriya Gontareva to "stop messing with the exchange rate" and gave her a week to solve the issue, Ukrainian media reported Wednesday.
Note VERY carefully what that uber-idiot zio-slave retarded monster fascist Ukie PM Yatsenyuk said:
"The whole package of bills for getting IMF assistance part of which will be used for gold and currency reserves......."
The Ukrainian's gold reserves were STOLEN by zionist-anglo looters at the very first opportunity! And now the scum at the IMF will require the Ukies to use the IMF loans to BUY MORE GOLD?
What? So the ever-thieving zionist-anglo alliance can openly and brazenly STEAL it all over AGAIN?
If the Ukies really want their gold back, there's only thing they can do:
"Better Call Vlad!"
(And if that doesn't work, I guess they "Better Call Saul!") ;-)
Other than those two fancifully silly non-options, the Ukies are (once again!) going to be completely and totally SCREWED by the West and its money-printing/nation destroying twin machines of 'democracy' and 'austerity'.
Ahhhhhhhh, but that's just the way the financial ball bounces when dealing with the IMF and the other zionist-anglo financial vampire squids lurking in the West.
(In fact, there are so very many of these Western financial blood-sucking organizations and operations, I cannot possibly keep track of them all ........ )