Regional trends and Ukraine's productivity challenge

This chapter looks at regional socio-economic trends in Ukraine since the late 1990s. It begins with a look at the macroeconomic context and then turns to an analysis of regional growth performance, inter-regional disparities and other socio-economic outcomes. This is followed by a look behind the trends and the determinants of Ukraine’s productivity performance, in particular. Specific attention is paid to the labour market, which appears to work poorly, for a variety of reasons. Given an ageing and declining population, tight public finances and limited investment, regional growth in Ukraine depends ever more on productivity improvements.