The total wage arrears in Ukraine during 2004 decreased by 54.5%, but during December the level of arrears grew by 3.1%. This was reported to "proUA" by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. \n \nAs of January 1, 2005, the amount of unpaid wages stood at 817.6 million hryvnias, with 45.2% of this amount accrued during 2004, and 54.8% during 2003 and previous years. \n \nIn the overall structure, the largest share of arrears falls to Donetsk (28.6% or 233.8 million hryvnias), Luhansk (11.5% or 94 million hryvnias), and Khmelnytskyi (5.7% or 46.3 million hryvnias) oblasts. In Ternopil oblast, wage arrears during the past year grew by 3.2%. In Zakarpattia oblast, during December arrears grew by 2.5 times, while since the beginning of the year arrears decreased by 58.8%. \n