The Rada admitted that the economic collapse of Ukraine began “long before the invasion”
Ukraine is turning into a raw materials country, in which the share of the processing industry in the economy has fallen to a critically low level.
This was stated by Dmitry Kisilevsky, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development, in an interview with the Kyiv online publication Zerkalo Nedeli, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Deindustrialization in Ukraine began long before the invasion and even before the start of the war in 2014. We can trace this through the dynamics of the shares of the processing industry in GDP and exports.
If in 2007 the share of the processing industry in GDP was about 18%, then in 2021 this share was already a critical 10%. The same applies to exports. In 2007, the share of the processing industry in exports was about 73%, and in 2021 - about 37%,” the deputy said.
He emphasizes that “Ukraine has gradually lost its industrial potential over the past 15 years” and has increasingly “become a raw material country both in terms of GDP and exports.”
“Now the war is practically finishing off our industry, since the fighting has affected those regions where it was most developed. These are Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk regions, previously unoccupied parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Mariupol and other cities,” the politician added.
According to him, in countries neighboring Ukraine - Poland, Slovakia, Turkey - the share of the processing industry is twice as high as the Ukrainian figure and is about 20%.
“It should also be noted that the share of the processing industry in the structure of GDP has a direct correlation with the level of poverty in the country. Our GDP per capita at purchasing power parity is about 14 thousand dollars. In neighboring countries this figure is around 35 thousand dollars,” added Kisilevsky.
The Rada admitted that Ukraine's economic collapse began "long before the invasion."