The aggregate state (direct) and state-guaranteed debt of Ukraine in August 2018 decreased by 1.14%, or by $0.86 billion, to $74.85 billion, according to the website of the Ministry of Finance. In the national currency the state debt grew by 4.49% or UAH 91 billion, to UAH 2.117 trillion.
Since the beginning of the year, the aggregate state (direct) and state-guaranteed debt in U.S. dollar terms declined by 1.91%, or by $1.46 billion, in the hryvnia by 1.17%, or UAH 25.01 billion.
The Ministry of Finance said that public debt in August rose by 4.54%, to UAH 1.83 trillion (in dollars it decreased by 1.09%, to $64.71 billion), and external debt grew by 6.69%, to UAH 1.071 trillion (in dollars it grew by 0.94%, to $37.87 billion).
The state-guaranteed debt for the past month grew by 4.18%, to UAH 286.78 billion (in dollars it fell by 1.43%, to $10.14 billion), in particular external debt by 4.37%, to UAH 273.57 billion (in dollars it declined by 1.25%, to $9.67 billion).
The ministry said the principal amount of the national debt is denominated in U.S. dollars – 43.5%, another 30.24% in the hryvnia, 16.32% in special drawing rights, and 8.78% in euros. In addition, less than 1% of state debt is denominated in Canadian dollars and yen.
The official hryvnia exchange rate, using which the Finance Ministry calculates the debt, in August fell to UAH 28.28/$1 from UAH 26.76/$1, or 5.7%, while by the end of 2017 it was UAH 28.07/$1.
The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) has announced repeated tenders to select advisors for preparing the following companies for privatization: 99.9988% stake in OJSC Oriana, 99.9952% in PJSC Sumykhimprom and 100% in National Joint Stock Company Ukragroleasing. “To privatize companies for which there no tender was held, and only one bid was submitted, we announced a new tender to select advisors. Next month there will be a repeated tender,” Head of the SPF Vitaliy Trubarov told journalists in Odesa on the sidelines of the Ukrainian Financial Forum organized by the ICU investment group.
According to their terms, bids for participation in the tenders are accepted until the end of the day on October 17. The first stages of the tenders are scheduled for October 23, and the second – for October 26.
“Unfortunately, during the summer period many investment advisers could not be prepared for unbiased reasons,” Trubarov said, expressing hope that the repeated tenders will be success.
He also recalled that for the selection of an adviser for the privatization of Azovmash, the State Property Fund did not receive a single bid, and now, according to the requirements of the new law on privatization, the fund will prepare it for sale without involving an adviser.
Batkivschyna Party Leader Yulia Tymoshenko believes that Ukraine should switch from the crony economy to the social market economy, transform the economic model based on raw materials into the economy of innovative development. “This is a global trend, which was adopted as the basis and the main strategic line, including by the European People’s Party, which member Batkivschyna has been for more than ten years. A harmonious combination of free entrepreneurship with the interests of society is necessary. Today it is obvious that the market cannot be absolutely self-regulating and work in the interests of the public. It has weaknesses in the form of monopolism, ignoring the interests of the development of society, the paradigm that the strongest survives any way,” Tymoshenko said on Friday, September 21, during the presentation of the New Economic Course of Ukraine.
She said that the state should create equal rules for all. “Say “no” to monopolies. They eat any economic system, like any monopoly in any sphere of society’s life. It will be dismantled. We will finish the story with monopolies, including clans,” the leader of Batkivschyna Party said.
Tymoshenko said that the goal for this should be the accelerated economic growth with an annual rate of at least 7%, and the main driving force for all economic changes in the country should be a creative intellectual entrepreneurial class.
The leader of Batkivschyna Party said that the tasks of the monetary policy should be stabilization of the hryvnia, a reduction in inflation, the development of small banks, the introduction of long-term low-interest loans for business, and the control of the National Bank by society.
“And the speculative adventures that have been and are being conducted at the National Bank will be the subject of separate criminal investigations after the change of power: about $13 billion in four and a half years was deduced from the budget of Ukraine, from the banking system of Ukraine on the basis of speculative operations. We got almost as much, a little less, from the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. We need to remove the criminals from the National Bank who killed our currency, destroyed our economy and continue to make money on our grief,” Tymoshenko said.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukraine ranked 17th in the open data development ranking according to the Open Data Barometer study, reads the annual report Open Data Barometer from the World Web Foundation. The calculation methodology has changed this year, therefore there are no places in the rating as in the previous years, but the scores calculated allowed us to assess progress in recent years, the report says. In addition to points, the data on the difference between the points of assessment in the current and the first of the ratings were also used to create the evaluation list.
Ukraine is on the second place among the countries that made the greatest progress in the last four years. The authors of the study attributed Ukraine to the group of countries that still claim leadership, but are confidently working towards the discovery of data, the study states.
Ukraine shared the result of 47 points with Argentina. Ukraine is followed by the Philippines (42 points), Chile (40 points), and Indonesia (37 points).
The leaders of the rating were Canada and Britain (76 points each), Australia (75 points), Korea and France (72 points each).
The rating is closed by Saudi Arabia (25 points), and Sierra Leone (22 points).
