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management over how the regulator is run remains high.
Rozhkova lead the highly successful efforts to clean up the banking sector that has put the sector back into profit in 2020 and allowed it to come through the coronacrisis unscathed.
Rozhkova said recent reforms had damaged the regulator’s governance credentials and threatened the independence of the central bank, adding to similar complaints by one of her colleagues and fanning a spat with the governor appointed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last year.
Shevchenko has changed the style of the bank’s management and taken direct control of the clean up operations, effectively side lining Rozhkova. Other members of the old team have also been sacked or side lined.
Rozhkova’s comments immediately raised tensions as it emerged that the bank had asked the website to suppress some of what Rozhkova had said. Despite the pressure, NV.ua decided to publish the interview in full.
Concern over central-bank independence has contributed to delays in Ukraine’s $5bn Stand By Agreement (SBA) program with the International Monetary Fund.
Rozhkova, one of two remaining deputies who worked under Smolii, echoed remarks in January by fellow deputy Dmytro Sologub that decision-making at the bank is becoming too centralized around the new head.
Central-bank regulations envisage officials being “able to express your stance on the issues you’re in charge of professionally,” said Rozhkova, who’s overseen banking supervision since 2015 but had her remit narrowed after Shevchenko took charge.
The central bank’s press department denied Rozhkova’s accusations of censorship, reiterating that officials are expected work under a ‘one-voice’ policy, Bloomberg reported.
“Each central-bank official, and especially its top managers, should care about the bank’s reputation and shouldn’t hurt it,” spokeswoman Halyna Kalachova said on Facebook as cited by Bloomberg.
2.4 Ukraine the least economically free country in Europe
Ukraine is ranked as the least economically free European country, according to the Washington-based Heritage Foundation’s 2021 Economic Freedom Index, reports BMB Ukraine.
Ukraine earned an overall score of 56.2 points out of a possible 100, landing it in the “mostly unfree” category. (For comparison, the world average was 61.6 points, and the regional average was 70.1).
The Heritage Foundation bases its economic freedom score on four key indicators: rule of law, open markets, government size, and regulatory efficiency. Ukraine’s rule of law and open market scores both dropped in the 2021 Index.
9 UKRAINE Country Report April 2021 www.intellinews.com