The Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) has released the 25-th monthly enterprise survey “Ukrainian business in wartime” for May 2024.
The goal of the project is to quickly collect information on the current state of the economy at the enterprise level.
The field stage of the 25-th wave lasted from May 20 to May 31, 2024.
The enterprise managers compared the work results in May 2024 with April, assessed the indicators at the time of the survey (May 2024), and gave forecasts for the next two, three, or six months, depending on the question. In certain issues (where indicated), the work results were compared with the pre-war period (before February 24, 2022).
This survey uses a panel sample that includes 500+ enterprises located in 21 of 27 regions of Ukraine, including Vinnytsya, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattya, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyy, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi and Chernihiv regions and the Kyiv city.
Main results of the 25-th monthly enterprise survey:
- Against the background of reduced uncertainty in the long-term horizon and optimistic plans for the six months, the plans for the two-year perspective worsened nevertheless.
- In May, the Business Activity Recovery Index increased, while the Industrial Confidence Indicator did not change significantly for the third month.
- Uncertainty for the six-month horizon has decreased, while the short-term perspective has not changed considerably.
- Production results (month-to-month) have slightly deteriorated, and expectations for three months, although still high, are gradually worsening.
- The trend of employment reducing against the background of growing difficulties in finding skilled workers is maintained.
- Security and labor shortages remain major barriers to doing business.