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2.7 ​Polls & Sociology
According to a July 16-17​ survey​ by private pollster Rating Group, 37% of respondents were satisfied and 59% dissatisfied with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s performance,​ giving him a negative score of 22%. The Ukrainian opinion pollster Rating found in a survey of July 15-20 that 19% of Ukrainians reckon that the country is going in the right direction, and 68% in the wrong direction. The Ukrainian mood has turned very negative. Confidence in President Zelensky has fallen: Now 41% trust him, but 53% does not.
Business expectations fell to their lowest level in five years​, according to the National Bank’s latest quarterly survey of company executives. The second quarter level was 91%, a sharp drop from the Q1 level of 110.5%. Business leaders expected inflation to deteriorate to 7% by the end of this year and the hryvnia exchange rate to hit UAH28.28 / $1. “For the first time since the first quarter of 2016, enterprises expect a reduction in the production of goods and services in Ukraine,” the central bank reports. “Almost half of enterprises expect the worst dynamics, and only every seventh company - production growth.”
Public opinion polls show majorities of Ukrainians are skeptical or hostile to IMF programs​. Anti-IMF feeling is whipped up by pro-Russian TV stations – about half of Ukraine’s media market. Ihor Kolomoisky, Zelenskiy’s media backer last year and vocal opponent of the IMF, is bidding to manage the assets of another local media company, reports the Kyiv Post. Kolomoisky, owner of seven television channels and a group of Internet sites, vying for UMH Holding, the leading media company in Ukraine during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.
The consumer sentiment index fell by 11 points in June, to 65 points ​on a 200-point scale. Info Sapiens, which carries out this monthly survey, reports these drops: economic expectations, down 19 points, to 72 points; personal finance expectations, down 18 points, to 74 points; and development of Ukraine’s economy over the next year, down 18 points, to 56 points.
Two thirds of Ukrainians think that the country is headed in the wrong direction.​ According to the Rating Group’s latest survey on the socio-political situation in Ukraine, 19% of respondents believe that the country is headed in the right direction — 68% are of the opposite opinion (for comparison, 22% felt positively about where Ukraine was headed at the end of June, while 63% did not).
21​ UKRAINE Country Report​ August 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com