Ukraine state debt rises 1.2% in November

Ukraine’s state and
state-guaranteed debt rose 1.2% m/m to USD 82.8 bln in November, the Finance
Ministry reported on Dec. 26. State domestic debt rose 3.5% m/m to USD 33.9
bln, while state foreign debt dropped 0.3% m/m to USD 39.0 bln.
State-guaranteed debt slid 0.2% to USD 10.0 bln.

In UAH terms, overall
state debt declined 2.7% m/m to UAH 1,991 bln (56% of 2018 GDP).

Evgeniya Akhtyrko: The swelling of state domestic debt
in USD terms was mostly due to a 1.8% appreciation of the national currency in
November. Meanwhile, the volume of newly attracted debt (the equivalent of UAH
17.7 bln) only slightly exceeded the value of local bonds redeemed in
November (the equivalent of UAH 17.4 bln).

We project state and state-guaranteed debt will reach USD 83.6 bln in
2019, or around 52% of GDP (vs. USD 78.3 bln, or 61% of GDP, in 2018).