The mood of Ukrainian business is improving, and entrepreneurs expect the war’s end in one to three years.

Entrepreneurs in four strategic regions, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipro, improved their business performance ratings compared to 2022. According to the EBA, on average, these ratings increased by 0.3 points on a scale from 1 to 5.

When planning their activities, most companies focus on the end of the war from the perspective of one to three years. Businesses in the Kharkiv region have the gloomiest forecasts regarding the duration of the war. Common challenges for most areas are mobilization, predictability of the reservation procedure, the outflow of the labor force abroad, and foreign business trips.

In general, businesses in Lviv assessed the situation at 2.64 points (2.52 in 2022), in Odesa at 2.47 points (2.15 points), in Dnipro at 2.25 points (1.88), and in Kharkiv at 1.62 points (1.28 points). Last year, entrepreneurs of the Western region rated business conditions the highest among the group and the Kharkiv region rated them the worst.