Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Back in late September, when the exchange rate was around UAH 5.05 for $1 and that seemed way crazy, a guy at the bank told me that by December it would most likely be UAH 5.80 to $1 - which sounded totally impossible then...

Today, that same bank guy was helping me, and $1 cost UAH 7.40... I reminded him of our conversation two months ago, we both tried to smile, but ended up sighing heavily...

4 comments:

  1. Gas prices are doing the same thing. On one hand it's nice to be able to get gas so cheap, but on the other hand it makes you kind of nervous.

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  2. My former boss told me back in May his friends told him: in the fall the rate was going to be 7 or 8 UAH to $1. Which only proves the point that the whole "hryvnia collapse" was well-planned and a golden enrichment opportunity for some.
    Sasha

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  3. well, along the lines of the hryvnia collapse and enrichment opportunities - here's an analysis that says the same thing:

    http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-288899.html

    I take this article with a grain of salt, because rampant accusations are a way of "doing business" in Ukrainian politics and government.

    And the accusers themselves are, shall we say, not clean - it's the pot calling the kettle black.

    Nevertheless.....

    I remember during the parliamentary elections (no, not the last one, the one before that) when the assorted faction representatives got into accusing each other in televised debates, and protested that they were "holier than thou" - "holier" than whoever was accusing them at the time, as they made counter-accusations.

    Ukraine should just get all of the ugly stuff out in the open, finally, and get past it, and move on.

    Quickly. Because time is running out.

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  4. The chief economist at SigmaBleyzer in Washington said that the hryvnia would likely hit 10-15 against the dollar in 2009.

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