You're reading: Ukraine’s poverty rate may reach 33 percent in 2015

The poverty rate in Ukraine may rise to 33 percent in 2015, according to the Millennium Development Goals of Ukraine: 2000-2015 national report.

“In 2015 the poverty rate may grow to 33 percent against the goal of 7 percent,” the report said, which was presented during a roundtable talk entitled “Progress in the Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals” in Kyiv.

According to the report, the number Ukrainians in poverty has definitely dropped, however the index may return to the figure of previous years given the current situation in the country.

The poverty rate fell to 22.1 percent in 2013 from 71.2 percent in 2000, taking into account the actual cost of living.

Families with children are the main group affected by poverty, as they are the most vulnerable to the social and economic situation in Ukraine, the report said.

“As every third household with children is on the low income poverty threshold, the presence of one child increases the risk of poverty against relative criterion by 17 percent, the presence of three and more children – by 42 percent,” the report said.

The potential rise of poverty in Ukraine isn’t only caused by the ongoing conflict in the eastern regions of the country, according to Director of the Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies Ella Libanova.

“We would certainly experience a poverty outburst. It shouldn’t be attributed to war. We are close to this crisis not only because of war. We came to this crisis during the preceding years,” Libanova said, adding, that social benefits which are offered for vulnerable social groups, “fulfill many tasks, but not the tasks [required for] lowering the poverty rate.”

The first report was prepared by the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine, the Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry.