Below the poverty line: the cost of the minimum consumer basket in Ukraine is three times lower than the world price
Kyiv, February 16 (PolitNavigator, Alexander Semenyuta) – According to UN standards, the poverty line is earnings of 5 dollars or less per day for one person or a salary of 150 dollars monthly. For Ukraine, at the National Bank rate of 26 hryvnia per dollar, this is more than 3,5 thousand hryvnia. Thus, the minimum consumer basket in Ukraine (1218 hryvnia) is three times lower than the poverty level in Europe and the world.
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Western Ukrainian journalists tried to calculate what the minimum consumer basket of an ordinary Ukrainian consists of.
If you eat 172 grams of wheat bread and 10 grams of pasta per day, your monthly bread and cereal expenses will be 73 hryvnias. A person eats up to 8 kg of potatoes per month, which amounts to 24 hryvnias. Therefore, if you eat 5 grams of carrots and beets daily, your total vegetable expenses will be 43 hryvnias per month, according to ZIK.
The basket also includes fruit. If you eat inexpensive apples and dried fruits for a month, you will be able to spend 83 hryvnia. Sugar and inexpensive confectionery are another 50 UAH. monthly. Margarine and butter will take another 15 hryvnia from your wallet. The 660 g of pork and a small amount of other meat products included in the consumer basket costs another 220 hryvnia. Costs for fresh fish and herring – about 40 UAH. with a daily value of 19 g per person.
Expenses on dairy products based on a glass of milk per day, 10 g of sour cream and cottage cheese - over 200 hryvnia per month. And the consumer basket also provides for the consumption of one egg every other day - 25 hryvnia.
Thus, an adult Ukrainian spends 776 UAH on the minimum set of food products alone. monthly. If we add the costs of inexpensive soap, shampoo and toothpaste, 45 trips by public transport, then the costs will amount to 933 hryvnia.
The remainder of the subsistence level is 285 hryvnia. It is for this amount that one must manage to pay for utilities and other services, and purchase clothes. True, according to officials’ calculations, it is enough for a Ukrainian woman to wear one dress for 5 years, one coat for 8 years, and a sweater for three years.
English version :: Read in English Below the poverty line: the cost of the minimum consumer basket in Ukraine is three times lower than the world average