Hello, welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Ed Butler and today you find me in Ukraine, just two and a half weeks ahead of presidential elections here.

The nation is grappling with poor growth, with unemployment and with its most enduring economic challenge these days, corruption.

It's expensive. We can't afford anything, basic life, rent, food is expensive.

We still have not reached the level of physical production that we had before the Soviet Union collapse.

To clean the system, we need somebody from outside.

Because carried from the system, all of them are intoxicated because of corruption, more or less.

Yes, the state of Ukraine's economy as it heads to the polls. That's Business Daily from the BBC.

Well, I'm in the outskirts of the capital city, Kiev, here in Ukraine. This is one of the

classic neighbourhoods in this area. A series of apparently endless Soviet-era high-rise buildings,

maybe 20-30 stories high, big concrete blocks.

And a pretty desolate landscape around them.

There are a handful of shops here, all of them, prefabricated buildings, pretty much temporary structures.

Some guys drinking heavily over on a corner. Unemployment is high in these suburbs.

The population, many of them have come from other parts of the country seeking work, but the

average wage is little more than $250 a month. This is one of the poorest countries in Europe,

and the people here are struggling

just to get the basics.

It's expensive. It's very bad. And you can see how bad it is.

We can't survive on our pension. Health care is horrible. It's expensive. We can't afford on our pension.

Health care is horrible.

It's expensive.

We can't afford anything.

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