ABSTRACT
In the eight years between independence and its second free presidential election, Ukraine has experienced four phases of economic policy making. First, the period from independence in December 1991 through the end of 1993, was a period of economic disorganization. Second, from January 1994 through the first International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement in September 1994, the country lived nine paradoxical months of stabilization with no reform. Third, in October 1994, President Leonid Kuchma initiated a program of comprehensive stabilization and liberalization. It lasted a little more than two years. In the fourth and last phase, corresponding to the second half of President Kuchma’s mandate, liberalization was halted, and to some degree reversed.
