Prime Minister Honcharuk Criticised Ukrainians Who Keep Savings in Foreign Currency, Yet Declared $84,000 and €36,000 Himself

A genuinely awkward situation.

The head of government Oleksiy Honcharuk condemned Ukrainians who keep savings in foreign currency because of their negative impact on the economy. The prime minister's remarks were reported by the news agency UNN.

Oleksiy Honcharuk
Prime Minister of Ukraine

Of course, under normal conditions the Ukrainian national currency will strengthen. It should also be remembered that traditionally, historically, a significant part of our savings was held by people in dollars. That is, to exchange dollars and set them aside, and that is a way of storing money. It is not very good for the economy if a significant part of the population's savings… are in foreign currency. De-dollarisation of the economy is, in fact, its recovery to a certain extent. Therefore, confidence in the national currency has many positive results.

However, as people noted on social media, Honcharuk himself declared savings in foreign currency. The prime minister stated that he holds $84,000 and €36,000. This was pointed out by blogger Oleksandr Noynets.

Also, in his declaration for 2018, the prime minister stated that he holds 100,000 hryvnias in cash, 68,000 hryvnias in an account at Alfa-Bank and 89,000 hryvnias at Universal Bank.

Earlier, Oleksiy Honcharuk spoke about the government's plans to equate e-cigarettes with conventional ones and ban IQOS smoking in public places.