yea, coop, that poor girl was telling how bad the conditions were in ukraine while saying that she cannot now make her passport for travel to egypt and go scubba diving....didn't you get that subtle hint about taking girl to egypt and how do you say.....strip her
A lot of people here in Odessa are struggling economically. However, the girls that I know here that are having a hard time aren't thinking about going to an agency. They're thinking about two things: making more money themselves, and finding a local guy that makes money.
Earlier on I went online to my company bank account, the one account works in some 20 different currencies and, online, I am normally able to exchange EUR to USD, USD to GBP, GBP to Ruble etc. etc.
Well just to test the exchange rate I tested what exchange rate the bank were giving me from EUR to UAH to find it is 'blocked' online, obviously the UAH is so volatile the bank have withdrawn it from online exchanging.
But, upon checking xe.com they are giving a rate of 11.21 UAH to the EUR which is absurd, in 'normal days it was 6 (ish) UAH to the EUR!
Interesting !!!
Apparently you cant exchange UAH for Euro in Kiev for a little while now. My info shows 11.599UAH - EUR
Yesterday the powers to be, seemed to have pegged the US back to 8.5. It was trading at 10-1
They are trying to ease panic dumping of the UAH
Yushchenko told Central bank to secure "total control" over the banks purchases of dollars and issued a deadline for it to stabilize the currency market.
Central bank did a 4-5 percent rise in overnight refinancing rates to 22 percent from 18 percent on secured deposits and to 25 percent from 20 percent on unsecured deposits, this helped drive the UAH up to 8.6 to the dollar from about 9/US$ on Thursday, when the currency touched 10/US$ at one point.
Analysts at Ukrgazbank said the hryvnia's rate next week depended entirely on subjective factors. "As a consequence, next week the hryvnia-dollar rate could be 6/$ or 12/$. There are no clear parameters for the market."
The currency has lost half of its value, tens of thousands face layoffs, residents in the capital are bundling up in winter clothes as the heat sporadically goes out and Russia is threatening to cut off gas supplies.
Ukraine’s currency fell 45 percent against the dollar since July 1, prompting a warning from an aide of President Viktor Yushchenko this week that 60 percent of foreign-currency loans and mortgages may go into default because of the higher repayment costs. The ex-Soviet nation’s ability to stem the decline is limited by an agreement for a $16.4 billion International Monetary Fund bailout that prohibits reserves from falling more than 4 percent by year-end from $32.8 billion.
“The rate move today will only provide short-term relief,” said Nigel Rendell, an emerging-markets strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London. “Interest rates don’t fix macro- economic problems, they only put sticking plaster over them.”
cheers for the rosey picture kevin! no one that i know here is 'bundling winter clothes'! and as for the heating, afaik it only went off the one time due to the ukraine gas supplier turning off gas to power plants 5 and 6 due to non payment. the government hadn't paid the required subsidy to the power company to enable them to pay in full. but ok... still not a good situation!
i'm not trying to say things are great... our friends that have to pay their rent in usd are obviously not in a great situation at all.
but the local puzata hata and bars are as packed as ever, so most people round here have at least a few spare grv!
looks like 1usd is worth about 8grv at the moment...
inflation soon will rain down on kiev like a monsoon.
think about it.
as prices of oil and well, everything go up, the pensions of all the old people, and there is plenty of them will rise, and the government will have to start printing money for the people to survive with only basic necessities.
also, with the price of real estate exploding in and around kiev so that even a modest apartment is more than 50g. wow. can you imagine a 50g mortgage at 20% interest on 1g a month salary. I honestly don't know how they do it. There must be foreclosures and the government will bail out the homeowners because they don't want the people to be out on the street. Yulia has a big heart and the government will start printing money to cover that ticking time bomb.
i'm not an economist, but I don't think you need to be one to see that something is seriously wrong here.
what does this mean to us?
not much. maybe a slight advantage. but the girls who are looking for foreign love do it in relatively good economic loves. the girls that look for love only when times get tough are the ones you need to worry about.
hi anybody been to simferolpol lately whats it like ?? ive been talking to Chris over about apartments to rent is he OK ?? anybody had dealings with him ?? is much English spoken there as my Russians shite, anybody want cheap flights try Whizzair only fly from luton but cheap as chips!!!! if anybodies going in jan we could meet up!!!
Rob...chris is a good guy, only have spoken to him on phone but I would trust him to take care of anything needed. Been a while since I have been to simferopol....not much to do, small center...but does have an outside skating rink( nice and cold for jan). I recomend a day trip to sevastopol, yalta and if have time alushta. The mountains there remind me of LA.
Yes,
Chris is OK, Wizzair are cr@p, I don't do 3 hour flights without a hot meal on offer!
If booking at very short notice then have a look at Alitalia from London (via Italy) to Kiev, don't book Alitalia too far in advance though because they are in even deeper s.h.1.t. than is possible to imagine, never mind chapter 11, try chapter one thousand and 11 :)
I recall back to the 'Orange Revolution' of 2004, Christmas & New Year period. I was planning to travel there but watching the BBC one could have been convinced there was a civil war going on. Fortunately I had good contacts there who said 'OK' to travel and when I got there the centre of Kiev, according to the BBC the 'waring factions', well it was more like a giant street party, no problem whatsoever.
Ukraine does not need to dig the pipeline up.
It is the same gas pipeline feeds Europe and Ulraine. Russia can not shut the gas off to Ukraine without shutting off Europe.
Its a big problem for Russia. The only way russia can get around it is to lay a pipe through the black sea but thats going to take years.
Of course when Russia eventually lays this pipeline Ukraine will be stuffed.
on ukraine news website it said europes gas was seperate and still running through, the ukraine said
if theirs isnt turned back on they will takes europes