Ukraine state debt increases 0.85% in February

Ukraine’s state debt increased 0.85%, or USD 0.65 bln,
to USD 76.76 bln in February, the Finance Ministry reported on March 26. In UAH
terms, the debt dropped 2.97%, or UAH 63.2 bln, to UAH 2,069 bln. The debt was
69.4% of Ukraine’s 2017 GDP.

Evgeniya Akhtyrko: The state
debt increase, in USD terms, was merely due to a 4.6% appreciation of the local
currency during the month, which resulted in a higher value of the
UAH-denominated local debt. Meanwhile, the domestic debt (in UAH terms) stayed
almost flat as February’s placement of UAH-denominated bonds almost compensated
the local debt repayments during the month. A 1% drop in foreign debt was
mostly owing to an IMF loan repayment of about USD 458 mln.

For 2018, we project the state debt will rise to
USD 78.6 bln (69.8% of GDP), assuming cooperation with the IMF is maintained.