Public debt climbs to 14.2% yoy in June

According to the Ministry of Finance, total public debt rose 14.2% yoy to USD 17.7 bln in June. However, in terms of debt-to-GDP, public debt contracted to 10.1% of GDP from 12.6% a year ago. External debt was up 12.6% yoy to USD 13.9 bln, while internal debt added 20.6% yoy to USD 3.8 bln. Andrii Parkhomenko: Ukraine’s public debt is quite low compared to elsewhere in the world, thus it has the capacity to attract more debt to finance infrastructure projects. On July 7, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko suggested increasing government-backed borrowing on infrastructure from UAH 1.8 bln to UAH 10.9 bln in 2008. The project, however, could get stuck inside Ukraine’s political apparatus.