Over the three years of war, there have been significant changes in the attitude of businesses to the government's economic policy on business support: now an unprecedentedly large proportion of entrepreneurs are neutral in their assessment of the government's activities, while a record low number praise it. This was reported by Yevhen Angel, a senior researcher at the IED, during the event “Business Climate in Ukraine in Vulnerable Times” organized by the IED and the Liaison Office in Brussels.
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“In February 2025, the share of positive assessments of the government's economic policy was the lowest in three years of research (since May 2022). Only 3% of enterprises rated the government's actions positively. The share of negative assessments is quite high and exceeds 20%. However, most enterprises still choose neutral assessments,” Angel said.
According to him, at the beginning of the war, the share of neutral assessments of the government was about 40%, while in February 2025 it had already reached 66%. At the same time, the share of negative assessments was high at the beginning of the war, decreased in 2023, rapidly increased to a record 30% in the summer of 2024, and is now above 20%.
The assessment of the government's economic policy remains largely neutral
The study found that different groups of companies suffer from common problems, but with different priorities.
Businesses that are positively assessed by the government consider the danger of working to be the most important obstacle (69%). Companies with neutral assessments most often talk about a shortage of personnel (68%). And companies with negative assessments from the authorities most often complained about rising prices (59%).
“This set of three main obstacles is the same for all business groups, but the order of priority is different,” Angel emphasized.
Assessing barriers to doing business depending on government policy assessment
The IED business survey shows monthly that problems of corruption or pressure from regulatory and law enforcement agencies are traditionally at the bottom of the list of main obstacles to doing business.
“But companies that give negative assessments are much more likely to talk about a lack of working capital, corruption, logistical problems and illegal demands and pressure from law enforcement agencies,” Angel said.
They were also more likely to experience a decline in production (37.8%) and sales (40.8%) and had less optimistic expectations for these indicators than businesses that assessed the government's work as neutral or positive.
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