3 Feb 2023 14:27

NBU forecasts unemployment in Ukraine to remain at around 26% in 2023

MOSCOW. Feb 3 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has forecast that unemployment will remain at around 26% in 2023 and decrease to 20% in 2024 and 17.6% in 2025, Ukrainian media outlets said citing the NBU's Inflation Report.

"Throughout 2023, unemployment rate will remain high (about 26%). Afterwards, it will decrease as labor demand expands amid a revival of business activity. Unemployment rate is expected to fall to 20% in 2024 and to 17.6% in 2025," the NBU said.

The NBU expects that unemployment would remain higher than its natural level given that the process of restoring production capacities and logistic routes takes a long time.

At the same time, it has been forecast that wages would grow slowly because of considerable inflation, in particular, by 3.3% in 2023, and by another 6.5% and 4.3% in 2024 and 2025, respectively.