4/28/2005

More Revaluation

The currency revaluation continues to piss off a lot of people over here. Since people are concerned about local currency stability they tend to keep their savings at home, in a coffee tin, in Dollars...and their savings just got reduced overnight by about 3%. Comments like this from the Central Bank head can't be making people happy either:

"The Ukrainians haven't lost anything. They will simply pay 505 hryvnys instead of 530 for 100 dollars if they go abroad, it will be cheaper to travel. As to the domestic Ukrainian market, where exactly do you have to use dollars there?"

Right...and how many Ukrainians can afford to travel to the States? Better yet, how many Ukrainians actually get a visa to go to the States?

Look, when you have a fixed currency like they do here, readjustments are bound to happen every now and then. I don't think that the Central Bank arbitrarily revalued the currency. But it's really stupid to say things like that if you don't want to antagonize the people most affected by the revaluation.