Ukraine state debt stays flat in February

Ukraine’s state and state-guaranteed debt stayed flat
at USD 78.2 bln in February, as rising state domestic debt was offset by
declines in state-guaranteed debt, the Finance Ministry reported on March 25. State
domestic debt increased 0.9% m/m to USD 27.8 bln, while state foreign debt slid
0.2% m/m to USD 39.6 bln. State-guaranteed debt dropped 1.6% m/m to USD 10.8
bln.

In UAH terms, overall state debt declined 2.5% m/m and
state-guaranteed debt dropped 4.3% m/m.

Evgeniya Akhtyrko: 
February’s state debt statistics apparently didn’t reflect a loan from Deutsche Bank for EUR 529 mln
attracted by the government on Feb. 28 under a guarantee of the World Bank.

State domestic debt increased in February as newly
attracted government debt from the placement of local bonds exceeded
redemption. In particular, the newly placed domestic debt reached UAH 18.5 bln,
while repayments amounted to UAH 29.7 bln (in the equivalent). Meanwhile, the
state-guaranteed debt declined mostly due to reduced positions with several
foreign banks.

The decline of state debt in UAH terms was mostly due
to a 2.6% appreciation of the national currency in February.

We project state and state-guaranteed debt will
increase to USD 80.8 bln in 2019, or around 62% of GDP (vs. USD 70.3 bln, or
60.9% of GDP in 2018).