Ukraine’s annual inflation will reach a 1.5-year high of 8% in March 2021,

exceeding the Central Bank’s forecast of 7.6%, said a monthly Reuters poll of Ukrainian analysts. Analysts said consumer prices rose due to inflation imported from world commodity markets, notably wheat, corn, sunflower oil and crude oil. Oleksiy Blinov, Alfa-Bank Ukraine’s Head of Research, said: “These changes in external prices are directly and indirectly transmitted to consumer inflation in Ukraine.” The IMF has predicted that Ukraine’s consumer price index will end this year at 7.9%.