Ukraine’s central bank has sharply raised interest rates from 19.5% to 30% in an effort to curb inflation and prop up its beleaguered currency.
The new benchmark refinancing rate takes effect on Wednesday.
It comes as the government in Kiev is seeking a $17.5bn (£11.4bn; €15.6bn) assistance programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Inflation is expected to hit at least 26% this year and the hryvnia has tumbled against the dollar.
The currency has lost 80% of its value since last April, when pro-Russian separatists took up arms in the country’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a month after Russia annexed Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula.
Last week, the hryvnia hit a record low of 33.75 to the dollar before recovering some ground.
