Ukraine: Eastern Europe beauty markets series with Euromonitor

We got an expert’s perspective on Eastern European markets, looking at how they are impacting the wider EMEA and global industry - or in Ukraine’s case, staying very locally-focussed.

Here, we consider growing concern over the side effects of beauty and personal care products being seen in Ukraine, with exclusive insights from Euromonitor International​​, market research provider.

Local products build strong appeal to consumers​

In 2016 income and expenditure levels in Ukraine remained lower than regional averages.

An average monthly salary barely exceeded UAH5,300 whilst in rural areas having salaries below UAH2,000 was very common.

Consumer expenditure was badly hit by the country’s economic recession in 2014 and 2015 when local currency was devalued by about three times and the economic and political instability combined with the conflict with Russia put significant downward pressure on consumer confidence.

In spite of some stabilisation, in 2016 essential spending still absorbed about half of Ukrainian consumers’ budget, and tariffs further rising over the year further eroded people’s ability to buy.

In this situation, many people were forced to economise even though being too economical with products used for hygienic purposes was not possible.