Kyiv: Ukraine to spends almost third of its budget to pay off government debt in 2019
According to the press service of the Finance Ministry of Ukraine, Ukraine’s budget for 2019 will provide 417 billion hryvnia for repayment and servicing of foreign and national debts.
“2019 is the year of the largest challenge in the Ukrainian history of financing external and domestic debts. 417 billion hryvnia is provided for its repayment and servicing in the budget of Ukraine for 2019. This is almost a third of the budget. These debts were not created today but by previous governments and as Americans say, pay day has come. February, May, and September are the months of peak load," said Deputy Finance Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Verlanov.
According to Verlanov, this is a challenge both for the government and for the whole country. A new program with the IMF and a conservative budget for the next year is the answer to these challenges. In general, the Ministry of Finance looks at the performance of the budget of this and the next year’s, if not with optimism then at least calmly.
“We did everything that had to be done. The risks are known. We control them. We have Plan B, Plan C,” the Deputy Minister noted. On November 23, the Verkhovna Rada supported the draft state budget for 2019 in the second and final readings.