Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed the law on Ukraine’s state budget for 2018 (No. 2246-VIII), according to a statement posted on the official website of the head of state on Saturday.
The law comes into force on January 1, 2018.
According to the press service of the Ukrainian president, state budget revenues are estimated at UAH 917.9 billion and expenditures at UAH 991.7 billion.
The deficit of the state budget for 2018 is proposed to be set at UAH 80.6 billion, or 2.4% of GDP, which corresponds to the program of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The limit of the public debt was set at UAH 1.999 trillion, or 60% of GDP.
Planned state guarantees were set at UAH 24 billion.
Proceeds from privatization are projected at UAH 21.3 billion.
The size of the living wage will grow by 9% and the minimum wage by 16.3%. Spending on assistance to families with children, low-income families, persons disabled since childhood and disabled children, temporary assistance to children and allowances on looking after people of the first and second disability group are estimated at UAH 59.9 billion.
The budget foresees UAH 71 billion for the provisions of benefits and housing subsidies to the population to pay for housing and utility services.
The educational subvention is UAH 61.7 billion and the medical subvention UAH 57.4 billion.
The state road fund with total expenditures of UAH 32.9 billion will be created in 2018. In total, UAH 47.7 billion is to be allocated for road development.
UAH 1.6 billion is envisaged for the functioning of the energy efficiency fund and UAH 0.4 billion for the implementation of the state targeted economic program for energy conservation.
In 2018, support will continue to be provided to local budgets for the implementation of investment and regional development projects. In particular, UAH 6 billion is to be allocated from the State Regional Development Fund, UAH 5 billion is the subvention for measures on the socio-economic development of individual territories, and UAH 1.9 billion is the subvention for the formation of the infrastructure of united territorial communities.
As reported, the state budget for 2018 is based on the forecast of GDP growth of 3% with inflation of 9%, as well as on the hryvnia exchange rate of UAH 30.1/$1.
The minimum wage in Ukraine is to grow from January 1, 2018, by 16.3% to UAH 3,723 per month, and the government has been also instructed to study the possibility of increasing it after the first quarter of next year.
The living wage is set at UAH 1,700 from January 1, 2018, UAH 1,777 from July 1, and UAH 1,853 from December 1.
The Verkhovna Rada approved as a whole the law on Ukraine’s state budget for 2018 (bill No. 7000) on December 7, 2017. Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy signed the document and sent it to the head of state for signature on December 22.
