Ukraine state debt declines 1% in May

Ukraine’s state debt declined 1.0%, or USD 0.8 bln, to
USD 76.3 bln in May owing to a decline in foreign debt, the Finance Ministry
reported on June 25. Foreign debt decreased 1.6%, while domestic debt inched up
0.5%. In UAH terms, debt dropped 1.4%, or UAH 28.0 bln, to UAH 1,993.0 bln.
State debt was 66.8% of Ukraine’s 2017 GDP.

Evgeniya Akhtyrko: The decline
in foreign debt was due to debt repayments to IFIs and foreign governments. The
growth of domestic debt in May was due to the placement of local bonds for UAH
10.6 bln (including local Eurobonds for USD 272.3 mln and EUR 64.6 mln), which
exceeded the redemption of local bonds by UAH 3.7 bln.

For 2018, we project the state debt will rise to USD
78.2 bln (67.6% of GDP), assuming IMF cooperation is maintained.