Ukrainian currency hits 10-year low!

Ukraine's currency, the hryvnia, has fallen to a new low of 10 to the US dollar.

The currency's decline reflects political upheavals and longer-term persistent economic weakness.

But it is also likely to aggravate those underlying problems and adds to Ukraine's need for international financial assistance.

The pressure is on the West and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help, as Russia seems unlikely to.

Even before the recent political upheavals, Ukraine's economic performance was dismal. The economy is still smaller than it was in 1992, in the early days of post-Soviet independence.

'Currency slide'

But the political crisis has aggravated the country's long standing problems and the falling value of the currency is one of the consequences.

And it has been a sharp fall, 18% so far this month alone. The central bank has been making some efforts to stem the decline, by using its foreign exchange reserves to buy hryvnia.

At best, it has slowed the loss of value, but at the expense of running those reserves down to dangerously low levels.

One rough and ready rule sometimes used is that a country should have enough reserves to pay for three months of imports.