Ukrainians see winter of unease despite IMF loan
KIEV, Nov 6 (Reuters) - From Lada taxi drivers to antique dealers, steelworkers to pastry sellers -- Ukrainians are suffering from the global financial crisis and few expect a multi-billion dollar IMF loan to do much to ease the pain.
The International Monetary Fund approved a $16.5 billion loan late on Wednesday, releasing $4.5 billion immediately to help boost the shaky banking sector and stabilise the currency.
Driving a clapped out 1987 black Lada taxi, Valentyn has seen the capital of the ex-Soviet state boom in recent years, boosted by almost unrestrained lending to businesses and, more recently, ordinary consumers.
Businessmen, or their well-heeled wives, drive gas-guzzling SUVs in central Kiev, eat in pricy restaurants and frequent shops selling Armani clothes, Mont Blanc pens and Rolex watches.
But in the past two months, after U.S. financial giants collapsed, Iceland was brought to its knees and European governments partly nationalised their banks, the global crisis finally reached Ukraine.
"Oh, the crisis," Valentyn laments, as the car rattles under his heavy frame. "People are working, but for sustenance only. I can feed my family every morning, yes, but to renovate the flat, no. Everything is too expensive."
Antiques dealer Leonid Komski, sitting next to a $30,000 icon in his back office, said he was trying to stay calm. "We are doing what everyone else is doing, we are cutting our costs as much as we can," he added.
Others are finding it harder not to panic.
"Am I worried? I'll tell it straight -- I was made redundant by my company a week and a half ago. I have been going about Kiev trying to find work," said Oleksander, a visibly shaken middle-aged man who had driven a truck for a furniture company.
Standing at a bus stop with his wife after a day of scouring the city for a job, Oleksander said he was not sure how he would keep up the payments on his apartment.
A lack of jobs and inflation of 25 percent also worry student Liza Kontsur, who said she was unlikely to find work in her home town of Zaporizhya, where the world's top aluminium producer RUSAL suspended production due to high energy costs.
GLOOM
Ukraine's economy completely ignored almost constant political turmoil since the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that brought the current pro-Western political elite to power.
Driven by prices for steel -- a key export -- and domestic demand, it grew on average 7 percent in the past eight years. Continued...
