Total amount of salary arrears increased by 11.5 percent in September only. This is an evidence of even deeper crisis in manufacturing industry, OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin says.

“The government’s lack of desire to stimulate the development of the economy inevitably leads to a crisis. In the sole month of September, the salary arrears in the country rose by 11.5 percent, which is 324mln hryvnia. Total amount of salary arrears has reached over 3.1bln hryvnia; which is a record high since 2001,” Lovochkin said.

The politician added that manufacturing industry remains the “leader” in arrears volume, with 79.5 percent of the amount concentrated here (2,498.4mln hryvnia). Processing industry is the one with the highest level on unpaid salaries, with 61.6 percent of the total amount.

“Over the past five years, political opposition has been warning about pernicious consequences of the manufacturing industry destruction agenda. The previous administration failed to hear us, and this resulted in a crisis. The budget for 2020 adopted by the parliament is no different from the previous ones. This means the salary arrears problem will get even worse, just as it did in the darkest times of the 1990s,” Lovochkin said.