Ukraine war hits economic pinch at South East Asia

Kathmandu: The owner of the only Russian Supermarket in Singapore, Ms Jia Ruiying, discusses how the Ukraine-Russia conflict has impacted her business. She now faces a new set of difficulties as the owner of the Singapore’s only Russian store.

According to the shop owner, “Our products from Ukrainian suppliers will likely stop,” and this comes at a time when several Eastern European ex-pats are looking for some relief in the midst of a challenging situation back home.

“When the war started, a lot of Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians panicked and came to my store, afraid of not being able to get the food they want for their families here,” the shop owner stated. “So they bought a lot of these items from the store and stocked up at home.”

And on top of it, Western allies’ decision to exclude many Russian banks from the Swift international payment system isn’t making things easier for for her and her clients to settle their payments.

“Some of customers are having difficulties withdrawing money from their banks due to sanctions,” Ms Jia stated. “After the western sanctions on Swift transactions in Russia we’ve been having some difficulties with transactions,” she added.

Tags: Belarus, Business, economic, Entrepreneur, Russia, Singapore, South-East Asia, Ukraine