Ukraine budget revenue falls 2.0% yoy in 2013

Ukraine’s state budget revenue fell 2.0% yoy in 2013, the state Treasury reported on Jan. 24. The result means a UAH 30.9 bln shortfall, which is 8.3% of targeted collections (UAH 370 bln).

Alexander Paraschiy: The 2.0% drop confirms Ukraine’s fiscal crisis is really severe, especially in light of heavy support from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), which wired UAH 27.3 bln to the budget during 11M2013. The result also factors in the heavy scrutiny that businesses got from tax authorities, which should have provided a boost in revenue. Against this backdrop, the outlined 2014 revenue target of UAH 395 bln, or a 16.6% yoy revenue increase, looks quite fantastic. In the best case, that is if the economy starts reviving slightly, we can anticipate state collections growing 6%, which nevertheless promises a UAH 30-40 bln shortfall for 2014.