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Ukraine among world’s top five miserable economies — Bloomberg

Venezuela, Argentina, South Africa and Greece are the other four

© AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

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KIEV, March 3. /TASS/. Ukraine is among the world’s five most miserable economies, after Venezuela, Argentina and South Africa, according to the Bloomberg survey data.

Bloomberg has analyzed the situation in 51 countries and believes that Venezuela, Argentina, South Africa, Ukraine and Greece are "the five most painful economies in which to live and work."

The so-called misery index is "a simple equation: unemployment rate + change in the consumer price index = misery."

Inflation in Ukraine is expected to rise to a 17.5% pace this year, the report says. According to official data, last year inflation in the country reached 24.9%

Unemployment will climb to 9.5% from its 8.9% rate as of the third quarter of 2014.

The war, which has killed 6,000 people in eastern Ukraine, according to the UN figures, "will exact greater economic casualties," Bloomberg says.

"The depressing expectations for Ukraine still aren't quite as bad as what the embattled nation faced in 2014, when it finished second in the misery index. The 2015 projections, dismal as they are, would make Ukraine bright enough to jump past South Africa and Argentina from last year's misery-index readings," the report says.

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Bank of Russia does not rule out keeping key rate at current levels until year's end

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Russian defense minister dismisses his deputy Ivanov

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Russia to hold next international security meeting in 2025 — top security official

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Insurers refuse to pay compensation for Nord Stream — Russian envoy to UN

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Police checks reports of bomb allegedly planted at Russian embassy in Brazil — newspaper

The Russian embassy has not yet commented on the situation

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Kiev's attacks on ZNPP may trigger another Chernobyl — Zaporozhye governor

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US stops hiding true purpose of sanctions on Moscow, Russian envoy says

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