Almost half of Ukraine’s economy is a shadow economy, Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko said at his meeting with businessmen on Friday. The level of Ukraine’s shadow economy remains high, at about 45 to 47 percent, and up to 52 percent in some areas, including the car market.
Among vital issues, Yushchenko cited holding land auctions to facilitate land allotment procedures, along with improving and unifying standards and carrying out five or six social reforms designed to cut social taxes, and tax reforms.

Yushchenko said Ukraine will develop a new fiscal policy next year, aimed at reducing social taxes at least by half.

Ukraine’s head-of-state also spoke about investment. In the first nine months of this year, investment growth dropped four-fold in Ukraine, to between 7.5 to 7.8 percent, he complained, adding that, “in fact, this means stagnation in the field of investment.”

Ukraine failed to take full advantage of the Orange Revolution, observers say. Inflation in the country was 7.1 percent from January to September inclusive, against 5.6 percent during the same period last year, Ukraine’s state statistics service said. The level of annual inflation in Ukraine will be 15 percent this year, IMF analysts estimate – that would be the highest inflation among CIS countries. Ukraine’s economic growth slowed down to 4 percent in the first half of this year, against 12 percent in the same period last year.