Ukraine has received an additional 65 billion Japanese yen (approximately $500 million) in a soft loan under a loan agreement signed by Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Akihiko Tanaka.

The loan was granted on preferential terms: the loan repayment period is 30 years, including a grace period of 10 years; the interest rate is 1% per annum, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.

The funds were sent to the state budget to finance priority social and humanitarian expenditures, health care, the ministry specified.

The ministry recalled that on June 7 the governments of Ukraine and Japan signed an additional agreement on a JICA loan for a development policy in the field of emergency economic recovery. The agreement increased the loan amount by 65 billion Japanese yen, bringing the loan amount to 78 billion Japanese yen (about $600 million).

Ukraine received the first 13 billion Japanese yen (about $100 million) under the said agreement on May 24.

The Ministry of Finance expected that in June the volume of external financing will increase to $4.8 billion compared to $1.5 billion in May.