Ukraine state debt rises 0.7% in August
3 October 2017
Ukraine’s state debt rose 0.7% (USD 498 mln) to USD
76.6 bln in August driven by a USD 351.5 bln local Eurobond issue and hryvnia
strengthening. Through the month, the national currency gained 1.3% in August,
pushing up the debt value in U.S. dollars. As a result, internal debt
grew 2.1% in USD value and 0.7% in UAH. External debt dropped by 0.2% in USD
(and by 1.4% in UAH), mainly reflecting a USD 363 mln redemption on IMF debt.
The share of external debt dropped to 62.9% from 63.4% in the prior month.
Alexander Paraschiy: Nothing new
here as the IMF debt redemptions were covered by local Eurobonds. The more
interesting story starts in September, when Ukraine managed to place USD 3 bln
in Eurobonds, which is a few times more than was initially expected.
Ukraine received only USD 1.32 bln from the sum while the rest was allocated
for the repurchase of Eurobonds maturing in 2019 and 2020.
(still expecting a USD 1 bln wire from the IMF in 2017) with the only
correction that Eurobonds generated USD 0.8 bln more than we initially
expected. At the same time, we see less needs in local borrowing amid booming
budget revenues. We are keeping our state debt forecast unchanged at USD 76.3
bln (75.0% of GDP) in 2017.
