Ukraine manages to attract $51 bln to finance budget since start of war – Finance Minister
Since the beginning of this year, Ukraine has managed to attract $20 billion to finance the state budget deficit, and in total since the start of the Russian full-scale military aggression - $51 billion, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London.
“We are fully funded for this year… I think this is a great success of the negotiations. Not only are we not alone in terms of our budget financing needs, but we are not alone when we talk about financing the recovery,” Marchenko said.
He stressed the critical importance of international support and investment in Ukraine's reconstruction and economic growth in order to recreate jobs and return refugees to the country.
The minister stressed that, together with Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Restoration Oleksandr Kubrakov, he is working on how to comply priorities with possible donor funding.
"We want to keep track of all donor money, we want to direct this money to Ukraine's priority needs. This is not a very easy task but I believe that together we can do it better," Marchenko said.
He added that, for its part, the government of Ukraine continues to maintain macroeconomic and financial stability, it managed to reduce the inflation rate to 15.3% in May from 26.6% in 2022, and the latest forecasts for economic growth this year are about 3%.
As reported, the needs of the state budget of Ukraine in external financing this year are estimated at $42-42.5 billion.
At the end of May Marchenko noted that the unfunded needs for financing the priority recovery of Ukraine this year amounted to about another $6.5 billion, out of a total estimate of $14.1 billion made by the World Bank under RDNA2. The minister clarified that the 2023 state budget provides for $3.3 billion for priority recovery, and international partners provided guarantees for about $4.3 billion.
Marchenko recalled that the needs of the energy sector in priority recovery are estimated at $3.3 billion, humanitarian demining - $400 million, restoration of destroyed and damaged housing - $1.9 billion, critical and social infrastructure - $5.8 billion, and $2.8 billion is needed to support the private sector.