“Ukraine starts to close the gap with Russia”

headlines a story in bne Intellinews. “Ukraine is actually outperforming Russia on income growth, industrial production growth and a few other counts,” reads the story. “Wages in Ukraine in dollar terms remain about half of those in Russia, but have been growing strongly in the last two years and closing the gap with Russian salaries.” Over the last two years, Ukrainian salaries have almost doubled, to $490. During the same time, Russian wages grew by $10, to $689. While Russian retail sales slumped, Ukraine’s retail sales were up 11.8% yoy in March, according to Ukrstat.