On February 23, at a government meeting, a decision was made to index pensions from March 1, 2024. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal announced this in his telegram. True, pensions will not grow by 13%, as previously predicted, but much less.
“This is already the third indexation during a full-scale war,” the message says. — Pensions will increase by almost 8%. The average increase will be 322 UAH, and the average pension will increase to 5,717 UAH.
Indexation will affect more than 10 million Ukrainians. We are talking about 9.5 million civilian pensioners, almost 600 thousand pensioners of law enforcement agencies and almost 100 thousand “Chernobyl victims”.
In addition, from March 1, the pensions of 20.8 thousand scientific employees, civil servants, and local government employees will be indexed by 8%, the Ministry of Social Policy reports. That is, the government has accelerated indexation for these categories - last year the corresponding indexation for them took place on July 1.
Cancellation of payments for IDPs
From March 1, the procedure for paying assistance to internally displaced persons in Ukraine will change: some of the displaced will be left without money.
If previously IDPs could receive payments from the state (adults - 2000 UAH, children and persons with disabilities - 3000 UAH) automatically after registering the status of an internally displaced person, then from March money will be paid only to those in need, taking into account the total income of the entire family of displaced persons. Payments will continue automatically only to those who clearly cannot work and need state support. These are pensioners whose pension does not exceed 9,444 UAH, people with group I or II disabilities, orphans, seriously ill children, parent-educators and adoptive parents.
Utility tariffs
At least until the end of the heating season, utility tariffs in Ukraine will remain unchanged. Household consumers using the services of Naftogaz will continue to pay UAH 7.96 per cubic meter of gas in March. Water tariffs will also not change: as we wrote earlier, water prices will rise from April 1.
In March, household consumers will continue to pay for electricity at a rate of 2.64 UAH/kWh. At the same time, experts do not rule out that at the beginning of summer, Ukrainians will experience an increase in electricity tariffs. According to the head of the Union of Utility Services Consumers Oleg Popenko, the electricity tariff may rise to 5.5 UAH, and it is possible that this will happen as early as June 1.
Dollar exchange rate
February for the hryvnia turned out to be almost as bad as January, says Natalya Boyko, founder of SpiceProp. The dollar rose in price by 1.7% on the interbank market, and in banks the American currency became more expensive by 1.4%.
“In March, the weakening of the hryvnia will most likely continue,” the expert noted in a commentary for Briefly about. – The basic forecast of the official exchange rate is 39.00-39.50 UAH per dollar. This will be facilitated by possible delays in US financial assistance, a seasonal increase in demand for foreign currency, and a decrease in the attractiveness of hryvnia deposits.
If financial assistance from the United States is not approved by the second half of March, the end of next month could be especially difficult for the hryvnia, says Natalya Boyko. The fact is, the expert says, that during this period the seasonal factor will begin to intensify, when the spring revival of economic activity leads to an additional increase in demand for foreign currency. In this case, in exchange offices we may well be able to see a rate of 40 UAH per dollar.
Rising prices for vegetables and fruits
Experts believe that in early spring prices for vegetables and fruits may well increase by 5-7%. The price will be affected by changes in supply and demand, inflation, weather factors, and global trends. In addition, much depends on the quality of vegetables and fruits that are in storage today.
Experts include sunflower oil, meat and poultry, cereals and legumes, as well as eggs and sugar among the least risky products. This does not mean that prices for these goods will certainly decrease, but with a high probability they will be on the list of the least expensive ones.
Daylight saving time
Disputes about the advisability of changing clocks to winter and summer time have been going on for several years, but supporters and opponents of changing the hands cannot come to a common denominator. Several years ago, one of the main arguments for refusing to change the clocks in Ukraine was the corresponding decision of the European Parliament: Europe planned to change the hands for the last time in March 2021. Then each European country had to decide for itself which time - summer or winter - it would keep. However, due to the pandemic, the implementation of the European Parliament’s decision was suspended, and then there was no time for it at all.
So in Europe, as well as in Ukraine, they continue to move the needle. On the last Sunday in March, March 31, 2024, clocks will be changed from winter to summer time, that is, one hour forward.
