Quote: (02-07-2015 06:21 PM)Easy E Wrote:
The UAH/USD rate is currently 25.25.
That means the USD gained 200% against the UAH in one year. Damn.
My guess is the rate will only get worse if the IMF or US/EU doesn't bailout Ukraine soon.
If it goes to 30+, Ukraine could enter an inflationary spiral that will be hard to control. Hell, inflation is already running 25%.
You're right it's a 200% gain (not 300). Put another way, a year ago, you got 8.5 UAH per dollar and now you can get 23+ UAH. It's insane.
In terms of dollars, most imported goods still cost the same as they did last year. A kilogram of imported tomatoes was $4 last winter, this winter it's still $4. So don't come to Ukraine expecting cheap imported goods! Domestic goods are very very cheap.
IKE, sorry to hear you had a bad experience here with landlords. I haven't had an bad experiences yet with landlords in Ukraine (knock on wood) but finding a place is a pain, most rental ads are fake (bait and switch). BTW, my rent is 6000 UAH, in a span of eight months, my rent went from about $500 a month to $250.
Quote:Julian The Apostate Wrote:
I wanted to do an international wire transfer from my U.S account to my Euro account last year. To accomplish that, I would have had to fly to the U.S, visit the particular branch I opened the account with and fill out a mountain of paperwork.
This depends on your US bank. What I did is talk to my bank beforehand saying "I plan on wiring money, I'm going to call you from country X and ask for the wire over the phone, will you be able to do this? We are planning to do a project in country X and will need to do several large transfers..." They explained it wasn't their policy to do it, but they would make an exception, they put notes in my account saying I would later request a wire over the phone. In the end, it all worked out fine. There was no paperwork needed on my end, just had to make a phone call for each transfer. This was a business account, I'm not sure if they would have done it for a personal account.