Ukraine state debt rises 1.3% in September

Ukraine’s state and state-guaranteed debt rose 1.3% m/m
to USD 83.0 bln in September, the Finance Ministry reported on Oct. 28. State
domestic debt jumped 7.6% m/m to USD 34.3 bln, while state foreign debt dropped
2.9% m/m to USD 38.7 bln. State-guaranteed debt slid 2.4% to USD 10.0 bln.

In UAH terms, overall state debt declined 3.4% m/m to
UAH 1,998 bln (56% of 2018 GDP).

Evgeniya Akhtyrko: The decline
in state foreign debt was mostly due to the redemption of USD 661 mln in
Eurobonds issued in 2015, as well as
the repayment of USD 90 mln to the IMF. State domestic debt rose as the amount
of local bonds placed in September exceeded the amount of bonds redeemed during
the month.

In particular, MinFin receipts from local bond
placements in September amounted to UAH 20.4 bln and USD 547 mln. Meanwhile,
government outlays on redeeming local bonds amounted to UAH 6.4 bln.

We project state and state-guaranteed debt will reach
USD 80.8 bln in 2019, or around 53% of GDP (vs. USD 78.3 bln, or 61% of GDP, in
2018).