Financial sector news

The National Bank and the government usually focus on average inflation rates, but these vary significantly depending on the region.
After the start of the full-scale war, regional inflation disparities increased sharply.

Reasons:

• different levels of shelling and destruction, which affected the movement of people, capital, and resources;
  
  
• unequal in duration and scale stabilization power cuts, which increased business energy costs in different ways;
  
  
• changes in consumer habits and priorities depending on the region of residence.

The service sector is most sensitive to local characteristics.

In 2025, the difference in service prices between regions remained significantly higher than before the war — in some regions, the cost could vary by almost half.
The main factor behind this gap is housing rental prices.
The most expensive rents are concentrated in western Ukraine — in the Zakarpattia, Lviv, and Rivne regions, followed by Kyiv.
In contrast, rents in the Kharkiv and Odesa regions have even fallen compared to 2021.
There was also a noticeable difference in the dynamics of public transport fares.

Food prices rose more evenly, and the gap between regions was significantly smaller — about 16%.
The lowest prices are in the Poltava region, and the highest are in Kyiv.
The growing difference in inflation rates between regions confirms the importance of regularly monitoring local price trends. Regional specifics of price dynamics can significantly affect macroeconomic processes.

Systematic regional monitoring will help to identify imbalances in a timely manner and take them into account in macroeconomic analysis, which will improve the quality and soundness of monetary policy decisions.