State budget revenues in August 2020 amounted to UAH 100.2 billion, which is 15.2% higher than the planned figure and 14.3% higher than last year’s level, according to data from the State Treasury Service.
According to the agency, the general budget fund received UAH 85.4 billion in July, which is 19.7% more than the plan and 10% more than in August 2019. According to the service, in general, in January-August 2020 the state budget received UAH 688 billion, which is 2.8% less than the target, but 2.5% more than last year’s figure for this period.
In particular, the general fund for the eight months of this year received UAH 594 billion, the backlog of the plan was 3%, but this figure corresponds to the level of the eight months of 2019.
Customs in August brought almost UAH 26.9 billion, which is 1.1% more than the plan and 6.5% higher than in August 2019. Following the results of the eight months, customs receipts amounted to UAH 177.6 billion, lagging behind the expected level by 15.9%, and from last year’s level by 13.8%.
Tax revenues in August exceeded the plan by 33.2% and were 12% higher compared to August last year, amounting to UAH 56 billion. In the eight months, the tax service overfulfilled the plan by 5.3% with the revenues being UAH 356 billion, which is 17.3% more than in January-August-2019.
According to the service, VAT refunds in August fell to UAH 8.57 billion compared to UAH 9.13 billion a month earlier.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal believes that Ukraine can strengthen its position in the world agricultural markets if it extends the area of irrigated land, the government’s press service reports.
“Strengthening the leadership position of Ukraine in agricultural markets in the world is possible subject to an increase in irrigated land. Ukraine has a great potential in the development of the irrigated agriculture system, but the available capacity is used only by 25%. Therefore, we must increase the irrigation area by modernizing existing irrigation systems and building drip irrigation systems,” the prime minister said.
He noted that such measures will increase the yield in Kherson region by at least 2.5 times, which will contribute to GDP growth and create new jobs.
“Kherson region has the best preserved water management complex and the largest areas under drip irrigation are concentrated. Therefore, it can become an example in the construction of new and modern irrigation systems,” he said.
The deficit of the national budget of Ukraine amounted to UAH 40 billion in January-August 2020, the Finance Ministry said citing recent data of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine.
The deficit of the general fund totaled UAH 51 billion.
According to data of the State Treasury Service, expenses for the general fund amounted to UAH 646.6 billion, or 87.4% of the reporting period’s breakdown.
“A total of UAH 208 billion was raised from issuing government domestic loan bonds for financing state debt – 13.2% of the plan, including UAH 84.6 billion or $2.4 billion and EUR7 million from government domestic loan bond issues denominated in foreign currencies,” the ministry said.
Some UAH 170.3 billion was raised from external sources, which corresponds to the plan, including UAH 55.4 billion from placement of 12-year eurobonds worth $2 billion at 7.253% per annum, UAH 55.2 billion from the first tranche from the IMF in the framework of the 2020 Stand-By Arrangement, UAH 33.8 billion from placing ten-year eurobonds worth EUR1.25 billion at 4.375% per annum, UAH 15 billion in macro-financial assistance funds from the European Union, and a loan of UAH 1.35 billion from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the framework of the project “Modernization of the Social Support System.”
A total of UAH 275 billion was allocated for paying off state debt, which is 99.9% of the amount planned.
Ukraine since the beginning of the new 2020/2021 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of September 11 had exported 9.21 million tonnes of grain and legumes, which is 1.14 million tonnes less (due to corn) than on this date in the past MY.
According to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, to date, 6.17 million tonnes of wheat, 2.4 million tonnes of barley and 610,000 tonnes of corn have been exported.
As of September 11 this year, 40,200 tonnes of flour were also exported.
As reported, Ukraine exported a record 57.2 million tonnes of grains, legumes and flour in the 2019/2020 MY, which is 13.5% more than in the previous MY.
The Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine has signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of agriculture with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Spain.
According to Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine Taras Kachka, it took three years for Ukraine to sign this memorandum, the document is the basis for a structural agrarian dialogue.
“If we want from Brussels a qualitatively different access to agricultural products, we need a common vision of agricultural development with each EU member state. This is the main goal of our structural dialogue on agriculture with Spain,” Kachka said.
He indicated that Ukraine intends to maintain an agrarian dialogue with all other member states.
“Now we have 17 memorandums of cooperation with the EU member states. Most of these dialogues are alive,” the deputy minister noted.
Kachka said that the signed memorandum is a typical document on cooperation, but extremely important for Ukraine.
According to him, Ukraine is the largest supplier of agricultural products for Spain. In the structure of $ 840 million of exports to Spain since the beginning of the year, two-thirds is corn and oil. Ukraine is also a key supplier for Spanish livestock production.
The volume of cash sales by the population in August 2020 exceeded the purchase volume by $151.2 million, according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to the regulator, in August compared to July of this year, Ukrainians reduced the sale of foreign exchange by 6.2%, to $1.4 billion in equivalent, and also reduced the purchase by 1.8%, to $1.3 billion in equivalent.
In general, over the eight months of 2020, the volume of sales ($10.2 billion) of cash currency prevailed over the volume of purchases ($9 billion), the difference between which was $1.1 billion, according to the NBU data.
