Ukraine political crisis affects consumers.

According to a June 21, 2007 story distributed by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the current Ukraine President is favored to win the elections he called for on May 27, 2007. The elections are set for September 30, 2007. The elections were called to resolve a serious political crisis that some observers felt might end in violence. The crisis evolved from a Ukraine opposition party taking control of the country's legislature. The party is headed by a bitter rival of the current President.

On June 6, 2007, the Nuremberg based research firm GfK Group and the International Center for Policy Studies (ICPS) in Kiev released Ukraine's Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) for April 2007, which posted a decline to 88.0 points, 4.1 points below the February 2007 reading. The reason given for the decline was the ongoing political crisis.

But ICPS said, "Despite extremely pessimistic short term economic expectations, evaluations of their current financial standing improved among Ukrainian consumers: the Index of the Current Situation (ICS) rose to 98.8 in April 2007, 6.4 points above the value registered in February [2007]."

In addition, consumers expressed an increased propensity to purchase durables in April 2007, "a record high for the past 12 months." ICPS emphasized that longer term consumer expectations were more positive.