The second most important issue that worried Volyn residents most these days, apart from the Supreme Court's decision on Viktor Yushchenko's appeal, was the issue of the stability of the state's economy. If briefly describing the state that gripped many Volyn residents last week, the word panic comes to mind. Are there really reasons to be nervous? Overall, the situation looks quite calm or at least more optimistic than in the eastern regions of the state where complete chaos prevails. Pensioners of Volyn can hope for a normal pension payment schedule in December. This was assured to us by the deputy head of the Pension Fund administration in the Volyn region, Volodymyr Hrushka. Already 45 percent of December accruals have been financed. So far, the schedule of pension payments and the inflow of funds to Volyn is being fulfilled. There are no grounds for concern for public sector employees either, for now. Funds for salary payments have already been transferred to the education and healthcare departments. According to information from commercial banks, they have more than a sufficient supply of cash for timely salary payments. Also, the mayor of Lutsk, Kryvytskyi, guarantees that during December there will be no problems with salary payments to teachers, doctors, and cultural workers. Tax officials of Volyn are likewise fulfilling their plans for collecting taxes and fees. As the head of the tax administration of Volyn, Mykola Hryniuk, said, the October forecast indicators were exceeded both for local and national taxes, and the situation with November revenues is also normal. These days, tax officials are most concerned about value-added tax revenues. It, according to Mykola Hryniuk, is the most vulnerable during instability. However, problems with income tax revenues are not predicted in the tax administration, since Volyn residents struck in an organized manner – some went to the rally, others worked their shift. Therefore, there will be no significant reduction in production volumes. Prices on the real estate market after the start of the political crisis in the country have not yet changed in either direction. This was stated to us today by the director of one of the largest real estate firms, Larysa Musiichuk. She says that the number of people who want to buy or sell apartments has significantly decreased. Such behavior is surprising given that from January 1, new norms regarding the processing of transactions on the real estate market come into effect – one will have to pay more for this. The decrease in the number of those wishing to buy or sell housing could probably also have been influenced by the restrictions introduced by the National Bank on lending for the purchase of real estate. Lutsk supermarkets and wholesale stores are operating normally and so far there are no reasons to panic – the deputy head of the trade department of the Lutsk city executive committee, Tetiana Tsviruk, assured us. Yesterday's round of retail outlets confirmed that all of them were operating normally. However, the municipality says that if a private owner wants to conduct an inventory or close an enterprise for a certain time, it is difficult to influence them. Earlier, the mayor of Lutsk, Anton Kryvytskyi, assured that the authorities would not allow unjustified price increases for the most important food products. And a separate topic – the situation in the banking system. Here last week a real panic was observed. People were massively withdrawing deposits from banks. The head of the regional administration of the NBU, Oleksandr Bielik, believes that the restrictions introduced by the NBU on early withdrawal of deposits had a positive effect on the situation. In the first days of December, the volume of deposits in Volyn increased by 2-3 million hryvnias. Queues at ATMs are gradually disappearing.