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Expert points to Kiev’s inability to overcome demographic crisis

Under the current circumstances, immediate measures need to be taken, expert notes
Women in the bus in Kiev, Ukraine AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov
Women in the bus in Kiev, Ukraine
© AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov

KIEV, December 20. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities are unable to overcome the demographic crisis the country is facing, an expert from the Social and Demographic Statistics Department at Ukraine’s Ptukha National Academy of Sciences told TASS on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s State Statistics Service said earlier that in the January to October period of 2017, the country’s population had reduced by 166,300, dropping to 42.41 mln. A thing to note is that the service did not take into account the data which concerns Crimea and the Donbass territories that Kiev does not control.

"The downward population trend will remain in the near future," the expert said. According to him, "the government has been unable to influence the rapid decline in the country’s population." "According to the latest reports, there have been 64 births per 100 deaths," the expert noted.

Under the current circumstances, immediate measures need to be taken, he said, which particularly include economic steps to promote childbirth and increase people’s incomes. "Worsening crime situation, people’s uncertainty about the future and the situation in the country’s eastern regions are among the reasons for the disheartening demographic data," the expert said.