Ukrainians spend most of their money on food and non-alcoholic beverages like tea, coffee, water and milk, according to the State Statistics Service.
Local households spent 41% of their income, or about $45 billion, on food and drinks in 2020. Nearly 8% went on alcohol and tobacco, which is $8.3 billion.
Ukrainians mostly bought dairy products, vegetables and bread, while fish and oils were the least popular food.
The data doesn’t differ much compared to the year before, even though many complained that they put on weight as they had to stay home more during the pandemic. In 2019, Ukrainians spent 39.5% of their income on food and non-alcoholic beverages, 1.5% less than in 2020.
According to Yurii Sholomytskyi, head of the center for macroeconomics at the Kyiv School of Economics, it’s common when citizens of a country with a lower-middle economy like Ukraine spend nearly half of their budget on food and drinks.
“Our shopping basket is typical… when people have enough core budget for food, but there’s limited money for other services and goods,” Sholomytskyi told the Kyiv Post.
Compared to Ukraine, European Union citizens spend on average much less money on food and non-alcoholic drinks — just about 13%. They spend most of their money on utilities and petrol — 23.5%, and transport – 13.1%.
Ukrainians eat mostly at home. They spent only 2.6%, or $2.8 billion, on eating out and on hotels in 2020, according to the statistics.
Utility bills is the second-highest expense after food and drinks. Ukrainians spend 14% of their money paying bills, which is about $15.6 billion.
Among other major expenditures were transportation (8.6%, $9.4 billion), health care (6.1%, $6.7 billion), clothes and shoes (4.7%, $5.2 billion), household goods (3.8%, $4.2 billion).
In 2020, Ukrainians spent $3.7 billion or 3.4% out of their budget on cultural activities and vacations. The pandemic didn’t affect expenditures in this sphere much — Ukrainians spent only 0.5% more in 2019.
Expenditures on telecommunication services were among the lowest — $3 billion, or 2.8%. The mobile internet in Ukraine remains one of the cheapest in the world: 1 gigabyte costs $0.46.
Only about $1.3 billion were spent on education; it is 1.2%.
