Ukraine annual inflation rate hits 45.8 percent: official

Crisis-hit Ukraine saw its annual inflation rate hit 45.8 percent after a sharp acceleration of 10.8 percent in March, the country's statistics office said Monday.

Month-on-month inflation was 5.3 percent in February and 3.1 percent in January, showing a steep acceleration curve.

After a year of armed conflict between pro-Russian rebels and the army in the industrial east, Ukraine faces a combination of monetary, budgetary, industrial, banking and energy crises that could make it dependent on outside help for decades.

Its vital heavy industry in the east has been particularly hurt, with production plunging by a fifth -- not helped by a sharp decline in steel prices.

In addition, with foreign investors fleeing the uncertainty, the value of the local currency, the hryvnia, has fallen by around 50 percent since the beginning of the year.

In March the government received a first $5-billion tranche of aid from the IMF, which has pledged to bail out the country to the tune of some $17.5 billion.