Ukraine aggregate state debt stays flat in August

Ukraine’s state and state-guaranteed debt amounted to
USD 85.1 bln as of Aug. 31 without undergoing statistically significant
month-to-month changes, the Finance Ministry reported on Sept. 25. State
foreign debt increased 1.0% m/m to USD 43.5 bln, while state domestic debt
declined 0.8% m/m to USD 31.5 bln. State-guaranteed debt declined 1.0% m/m to
USD 10.1 bln.

In UAH terms, overall state debt declined 0.7% m/m in
August to UAH 2,338 bln, or 58.8% of Ukraine’s GDP in 2019.

Evgeniya Akhtyrko: The
redemption of USD-denominated local bonds in August had a larger impact on the
decline of debt in UAH terms because of 0.8% hryvnia depreciation during the
month.

We are likely to see a further decline of state debt
in September, mostly because foreign debt will drop USD 1.69 bln on the redemption of Eurobonds on Sept. 1.

At the same time, the local debt is set to swell as
the placement of new local bonds during the month will increase the amount of
redeemed bonds (UAH 8.2 bln).