Ukraine has now carried out radical economic reforms. In a single year, the government cut its budget deficit by eight percent of GDP. By letting the Ukrainian hryvnia depreciate by two-thirds, the government eliminated a large current account deficit. The next big tasks are to reform prosecution and the judiciary to establish reasonable rule of law and property rights, to implement the civil service reform and carry out a pension reform. The West has engaged intensely with Ukraine in its reforms since February 2014. While Western advice has been economically sound, Western financing has been quite limited. This policy brief, based on the author’s Global Policy Forum talk in Ottawa, Ontario, on September 22, 2016, argues the West should boost Ukraine through substantial investment funding to offer the nation a reasonable chance of success.
