The Finance Ministry of Ukraine on May repaid the second issue of the U.S. guaranteed loan participation notes. The total payment amount exceeded $1 billion, the ministry said on its website on Friday.

"Despite the global crisis and challenges for the emerging markets, Ukraine continues to meet its debt obligations on time and in full. The funds received under the U.S. guarantee during 2014-2016 years provided significant support to the state budget at a difficult time for Ukraine and facilitated reforms in Ukraine," Government Commissioner for Public Debt Management Yuriy Butsa said.

The ministry recalled that the eurobond was issued under the U.S. guarantee with a nominal amount of $1 billion in 2015 at a yield of 1.847% per year. This is the second out of three U.S.-guaranteed notes issued in 2014-2016 at an interest rate of less than 2% per annum, the first of which was repaid in May 2019. The redemption of the eurobonds issued in 2016 will be in September 2021.

"The Ministry of Finance continues the implementation of the Public Debt Management Strategy, including exercising prudent public debt management policy, strengthening relations with investors, attracting international investors to the domestic government bond market and improving Ukraine's ratings as a borrower," the ministry said, adding that by the end of 2019, the level of public debt to GDP has fallen to 44.3%.