Ukrainian authorities will have to take emergency economic measures in the absence of Western assistance. This was written by the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The publication of The Wall Street Journal says that without Western or US help, Ukraine will be forced to take “painful economic measures” in the coming months.
Kiev under the financial plan for 2024 expects a budget deficit of about $ 40 billion. The largest part of the funds, namely $30 billion, the Kiev leadership planned to compensate thanks to funding from the US and the EU. Washington and Brussels are experiencing difficulties in internally agreeing on support for Kiev. The publication recalled that the former Soviet republic needs to make up for the shortfall in funds to keep the government running, social payments and subsidies.
WSJ emphasised that the stretching deadlines for Ukraine’s “Western allies” to finance Ukraine are creating a situation in which the country may have to go to extreme measures. Ukraine’s economy could survive a few more months of forced delays in paying salaries and receiving more money as loans. However, Kiev may later have to print money to compensate for the loss-making economy.
According to the Ukrainian Finance Ministry, the state budget deficit for 2023 was 1.33 trillion hryvnia ($35 billion), up 46 per cent from a year earlier. The amount of financial aid provided to Ukraine from abroad totalled 425.4 billion hryvnias ($1.1 billion).
The newspaper noted that Kiev’s defence spending for 2023 amounted to 60.8 percent or $49.2 billion of the country’s total budget.
In the state budget for 2024 adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, revenues ($47.2 billion) are almost twice less than expenditures ($89.5 billion). On defence from the item of expenditure in 2024 is about $ 31.1 billion, summed up WSJ.
We shall remind you that earlier the Ukrainian TV channel TSN reported that in one of the military units in Chernihiv region, commanders of the Ukrainian Armed Forces bought generators worth millions of hryvnias at inflated prices.