Reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a four-year $15.6 billion EFF program allows us to talk about solving the problem of financing the state budget deficit 2023 and the possibility to more actively seek funds for reconstruction, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said.
“We are also actively working to find funds for the recovery, and that will be the main focus and priority of our activities right now,” he said on Wednesday’s national telethon.
Marchenko said the EFF program is an anchor program, allowing donor support to come together. “If all those commitments made by the G7 countries are fulfilled, we can close the state budget deficit for 2023,” stated the head of the Ministry of Finance.
Talking about attraction of funds for reconstruction, the Minister noted that this year Ukraine will not be able to spend more than $14 billion, “these are the figures that have been agreed upon by the World Bank experts together with the relevant authorities: the Ministry of Reconstruction and other ministries.
According to him, the Russian frozen assets will not help in solving this problem this year, and the Ministry of Finance will try to seek funds on its own.
“We in pre-war times did not master any more than we are now proposing. We have a war going on right now, not always a business that does renovations, repairs, is willing to work with a country that’s at war. Therefore, after the war there will be a completely different reality and other opportunities, including the involvement of private investment and business in the reconstruction of Ukraine, “- Marchenko commented on the recently voiced general assessment of Ukraine’s needs for reconstruction in $411 billion and the need for 2023.
The Minister believes that the post-war capacity increase is not a difficult task.
As reported, the Ukrainian government, the World Bank Group, the European Commission and the United Nations recently raised Ukraine’s recovery needs estimate to $411 billion as of February 24, 2023 from $349 billion as of June 1, 2022.
RDNA2 estimates that Ukraine will require $14 billion in investment in 2023 for priority recovery and reconstruction.
The need to finance the state budget deficit in 2023 is estimated at a minimum of $38 billion.
