The IMF has warned that Kiev\u2019s finances are unsustainable without restructuring and continued foreign assistance<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s state and state-guaranteed debt has surged roughly 130-fold in national currency terms over the past two decades, according to figures from the country\u2019s Finance Ministry. In recent months, Kiev has been struggling to plug multi-billion-dollar holes in its budget while pleading with its reluctant backers in the EU for more assistance.
\nThe ministry released the updated figure on Tuesday, putting debt at 9.54 trillion hryvnias ($212.61 billion) as of late September, compared with 73.29 billion hryvnias ($14.51 billion) in September 2006.
\nThe staggering increase is partly explained by the hryvnia\u2019s depreciation, with the currency losing nearly 90% of its value against the US dollar over the same period. However, the increase remains substantial even in dollar terms, with the debt expanding 14.6-fold. It has also more than doubled from $97.95 billion at the end of 2021, just before the escalation of Kiev\u2019s conflict with Russia in February 2022.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
West will never get its \u2018loans\u2019 back from Kiev \u2013 ex-Ukrainian PM (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
Foreign governments and international institutions now account for 66.4% of Ukraine\u2019s debt portfolio, much of it on preferential terms, which helps to alleviate the financial burden. Kiev has a debt repayment schedule extending through 2061 and is obliged to pay almost $33 billion to global financial institutions in interest and servicing costs alone, on top of the principal of almost $107 billion. For comparison\u2019s sake, Ukraine\u2019s 2021 GDP was around $200 billion.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Ukraine at 35: Inside an artificial economy<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s dire financial strain did not escape the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which warned in July that Kiev\u2019s debt \u201cremains unsustainable\u201d without restructuring and further preferential foreign assistance.
\nKiev\u2019s financial burden came into the spotlight in late summer when Vladimir Zelensky disclosed an unexpected $27 billion defense funding gap \u2013 which emerged after his 40-day PR \u2018pressure campaign\u2019 on Russia \u2013 and urged Brussels to frontload part of its \u20ac90 billion loan earmarked for 2027.
\nThe EU, however, refused to validate the figure and approve further assistance, urging Ukraine to make progress on stalled governance and anti-corruption reforms to unlock funding that was already available. In early October, Kiev managed to plug the gap with austerity measures and by convincing the EU to defer some payments for weapons until the next year.
\nStill, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged on Thursday that European leaders were finding it increasingly difficult to justify continued assistance to Kiev because \u201ceveryone is tired of this war,\u201d while urging Western governments to continue supporting Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The IMF has warned that Kiev\u2019s finances are unsustainable without restructuring and continued foreign assistance Ukraine\u2019s state and state-guaranteed debt has surged roughly 130-fold in national currency terms over the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t