Inflation in Ukraine hit 15.9% year-over-year, up from 15.1% in April, according to data published by the country’s State Statistics Service on April 9.
Core inflation rose to 0.5% in May, compared to the previous month.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
Food prices remain a key driver, as Ukraine’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) is heavily weighted toward them – and they continue to be affected by last year’s drought, a decline in vegetable supply and increased energy spending amid Russian attacks.
This adds to the factors that held inflation growth sustainable during the last six months: rising labor and production costs for businesses, which were also a consequence of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as well as robust consumer demand.
Previously, Ukraine’s central bank, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) decided to hold the key rate at 15.5%. The NBU’s estimates show that inflation continued to rise in annual terms in May and was “somewhat” above the current forecast trajectory, NBU governor Andriy Pyshny said during an online briefing with journalists on June 5.
Inflation in Ukraine hit 14.6% year-over-year in March and 15.1% in April 2025.
The NBU forecasts that inflation will decrease to 8.8% by the end of 2025, thanks to new harvests, stable access to electricity, lower global crude oil prices, and global prices weighing less on prices in Ukraine.
Italy Rejects PURL Funding for Ukraine
Inflation in May 2025 Across the Consumer’s Basket
Fruit prices surged by 17.6%. The reason behind this lies in frosts that happened in Ukraine in April when the temperature suddenly dropped below zero – an abnormal event compared with Ukraine’s historically regular seasonal climate.
Ukraine’s State Statistics Service proved what was previously voiced by NBU’s Deputy Governor Sergiy Nikolaychuk during a briefing on June 5 – the April frosts damaged this year’s fruit harvests, decreasing its volumes and pushing the prices up.
“Over the past month and a half after we finalized our April forecast, several more waves of frost have occurred. According to meteorologists’ reports, our winter wheat, winter rapeseed, corn, and fruit crops have been partially damaged. We can speak with high probability about losses of a certain portion of the harvest of early varieties of fruit and berry crops… Stone fruits will probably be more expensive this year than we previously expected and factored into our April forecast,” Nikolaychuk said.
Meat and meat products increased by 5.4% last month, alcohol increased by 1.8%, fish and fish products climbed by around 1.4%.
The prices for housing, water, electricity and gas that were actively rising in the previous months, have almost stood still and raised by a mere 0.1% compared to the previous month.
Prices for electricity and gas, which previously became the drivers of inflation in the second half of 2024, have stopped rising compared to April this year.
The same deceleration can be noticed for healthcare services, which rose by merely 0.6% month-over-month, as well as prices in hotels and restaurants (1.5% compared to the previous month), and services (0.5% compared to April).
Other categories in Ukraine’s CPI show a confident deceleration in prices:
- eggs (8.7% decrease compared to April)
- fuel (1.3% decrease compared to April)
- clothes and footwear (1.9% decrease compared to April)
- butter (0.8% decrease compared to April)
- milk (0.7% decrease compared to April)
- passenger railway transport (0.7% decrease compared to April).
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
Putin’s Worst Nightmare
