Current government is failing to cope with the social and economic situation in the country. Wage arrears is growing fast, and this factor is among those that demand immediate change of government right after the election. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM — FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin, commenting on data about wage arrears increase by 3.9 percent in May 2019.

“The soaring growth rate of wage arrears that started back in 2014 hasn’t changed by now. Since early 2019, the salaries debt rose by 73mln hryvnia, having reached 2.72bln. Out of this amount, 1.91bln of indebtedness has been accrued over the past five years. It’s obvious that if acting government maintains current economic agenda, it will lead to debt accumulation. The economy should be finally handed over into hands of professionals who will clear out the Augean stables amassed over the past five years,” Lovochkin said.

The politician explained that the key problem of current economic agenda is ignoring the Ukrainian manufacturing industry. This resulted in 2.16bln hryvnia of debts to manufacturing companies’ employees, or 79.4 percent of the entire wage arrears.

“This year, the government neglected the budget sector as well: wage arrears to healthcare workers rose by 12.4 percent, and education sector saw a 66.4-percent increase in salary debt. This is what healthcare and education reforms look like,” Lovochkin commented.

He also said that the problem has regional inclinations: over 57 percent of the entire amount of unpaid salaries is in eastern Ukrainian regions, including the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Sumy.

“Each month of the current government’s tenure means tens of millions of hryvnia of unpaid wages to our citizens. The election offers an opportunity to form responsible government, change the state’s economic agenda, and result in economic development of the state,” Lovochkin summed up.