The state budget deficit of Ukraine in December 2023 amounted to a record UAH 285 billion, compared to UAH 145.1 billion in November and UAH 98.4 billion in October, according to the State Treasury. It specified that the general fund deficit jumped to UAH 274.4 billion from UAH 162.5 billion in November and UAH 87.7 billion in October. The Ministry of Finance noted that the cash expenditures of the state budget in December also became a record and exceeded UAH 548.2 billion compared to UAH 337.9 billion in November and UAH 292.1 billion in October.
The general fund expenditures increased to UAH 397.7 billion from UAH 286.3 billion in November and UAH 228.1 billion in October.
According to the Ministry of Finance, in December 2023, revenues to the general fund of the state budget increased slightly to UAH 127.1 billion from UAH 121.7 billion in November, which is, however, less than UAH 139.4 billion in October, while US grant international assistance amounted to UAH 20.5 billion, while in November it was not, and in October it amounted to UAH 42 billion.
In total, in 2023, state budget revenues amounted to UAH 2.67 trillion, including UAH 1.66 trillion from the general fund, of which UAH 425.4 billion was international grant aid (the US – UAH 400.5 billion).
Last year’s cash expenditures of the state budget exceeded UAH 4 trillion, including UAH 3.03 trillion from the general fund, or 98% of the plan, compared to 93% a month earlier.
According to the Ministry of Finance, in 2023, the state budget was executed with a deficit of UAH 1.33 trillion, including a deficit of UAH 1.36 trillion in the general fund against the deficit of UAH 1.83 trillion planned in the general fund plan.
In 2022, the state budget was executed with a deficit of UAH 911.1 billion, including UAH 909.5 billion in the general fund, including UAH 99 billion and UAH 101.3 billion in December, respectively, and in pre-war 2021, the deficit of the general fund of the state budget of Ukraine was equal to UAH 166.8 billion.
State budget expenditures in 2022 amounted to UAH 2.70 trillion, including UAH 2.41 trillion for the general fund, which was 91.7% higher than in 2021. In December 2022, cash budget expenditures amounted to UAH 408.8 billion, including UAH 330.5 billion for the general fund.
The general fund of the state budget in 2022 received UAH 1.491 trillion, of which grant funding amounted to UAH 480.6 billion, while in 2021 revenues amounted to UAH 1.084 trillion. In December 2022, the general fund revenues amounted to UAH 229.2 billion, of which UAH 138.4 billion was grant aid.
As reported, on October 6, the Verkhovna Rada approved the next amendments to the state budget for 2023, mainly to increase spending on the security and defense sector. The new amount of state budget expenditures amounted to UAH 3 trillion 393.0 billion, including UAH 3 trillion 94.5 billion for the general fund, while revenues amounted to UAH 1 trillion 416.4 billion, including UAH 1 trillion 253.9 billion for the general fund. The limit for the deficit was set at UAH 2 trillion 10.35 billion, including UAH 1 trillion 834.6 billion for the general fund.
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In 2023, Ukraine attracted $42 billion in external financing to cover budgetary needs and a record amount of borrowing in the domestic market, Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said.
“This made it possible to finance all the necessary expenditures, first of all for the security and defense forces…,” he said at the Business Breakfeast with Volodymyr Fedorin on Wednesday.
The minister expressed hope that revenue targets would be met, although he said that in the case of customs it was “less likely.”
Marchenko noted that Ukraine has fulfilled its obligations under the Extended Fund Facility program with the IMF and EU macro-financial assistance.
In general, he stated that the implementation of the 2023 state budget seemed much calmer.
“Now we are less worried about 2025 than about 2024,” the Minister of Finance said when asked about the forecast for the next year’s budget plans.
He emphasized that it is necessary to stay in the program with the IMF and to achieve the opening of the Ukraine Facility from the European Union, which will solve the problem of 2025, which is associated with great uncertainty, in particular due to elections in partner countries, by 50%.
According to Marchenko, Ukraine should take steps to reduce its dependence on external partners.
“The key is the coherence of the government team’s actions in the broad sense of the word,” he said.
As reported earlier, Marchenko indicated that Ukraine’s need for external financing in 2024 was reduced from the initial $41 billion to $37.3 billion due to measures to maximize state budget revenues, activate the domestic debt market, and reduce all capital expenditures of the state budget.
In 2022, Ukraine attracted $32.1 billion in external financing.
Foreign aid as of February 15 accounted for 68.8% of sources of financing of the state budget deficit since the beginning of this year, Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee, told Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Friday.
“If we compare with last year, we see an increase in the share of foreign aid in the sources of financing. This is primarily due to the fact that, unlike last year, the National Bank does not redeem government bonds, therefore, emission funds are not attracted to cover the state budget deficit, “- said the head of the Committee.
Pidlasa specified that the state budget has already received UAH 171.9 billion from international partners. The biggest share is constituted by the macro-financial credit aid from the EU (EUR 3 billion) and grant aid from the USA ($1 billion).
“At the same time, the government continues to issue war bonds – debt obligations, which constitute about 31% of all sources of budget financing,” the MP added.
As reported, the state budget deficit of Ukraine in January 2023 due to a significant reduction in spending decreased to 72.3 billion UAH from 99 billion UAH in December, including for the general fund – to 78.9 billion UAH from 101.3 billion UAH.
Cash expenditures of state budget, according to operational data of State Treasury, in January fell to 193.7 billion UAH, including the general fund – to 183.6 billion UAH, or 80.6% of the estimates, while the general fund revenues amounted to 104.4 billion UAH, of which 36.6 billion UAH – grant international aid.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the actual state borrowings to the general fund of the state budget in January 2023 amounted to UAH 160.1 billion, or 54.7% of the plan, including UAH 41.4 billion from placement of government bonds, of which UAH 2.6 billion in foreign currency ($40.2 million and EUR29.4 million).
EUR 3 bln were financed from external sources due to the EU tranche of macrofinancial aid.
The state budget of Ukraine for 2023 was approved with a marginal deficit of UAH 1296.5 billion, including the general fund deficit of UAH 1124.6 billion.
Ukraine’s foreign trade deficit in goods in January-November 2022 increased 2.3 times compared to the same period in 2021, to $8.524 billion from $3.635 billion, the State Statistics Service said.
According to them, exports from Ukraine during this period compared to January-November 2021 decreased by 33.6% to $40.671 billion, imports – by 24.2% to $49.195 billion.
The State Statistics Committee specifies that seasonally adjusted exports decreased by 2.6% to $3.507 billion in November compared to October, while imports increased by 2.0% to $4.827 billion.
The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in November-2022 was negative at $1.319 billion, while in October-2022 it was also negative at $1.129 billion.
The coverage ratio of imports by exports in January-November 2022 was 0.83 (0.94 in January-November 2021).
The State Statistics Committee specified that foreign trade transactions were conducted with partners from 230 countries.
Kyiv is supplied with electricity by less than half, while a significant deficit remains in the energy system as a whole due to Russian terrorist shelling, NEC Ukrenergo said.
“As of this morning, there remains a significant capacity deficit in the energy system. Less than half of the consumption needs in the capital are being met, the priority is to supply power to critical infrastructure,” Ukrenergo said in its Telegram feed on Tuesday.
At the same time, the company expects that on Tuesday it will be possible to turn on certain equipment that will somewhat improve the level of supply reliability, reduce the power deficit in the capital’s power grid and power more consumers.
They drew attention to the fact that UAV bombardment of main grid facilities in the central region, which occurred on the night of December 19, as well as shelling in eastern Ukraine led to further damage to energy infrastructure and worsened the situation with power supply, in particular, in the central region and Kiev.
“Repair crews of Ukrenergo, generation and distribution system operators are making every effort to improve power supply,” the NEC noted.
As reported, the general director of the power supply company YASNO Sergey Kovalenko said Monday evening that the needs of the population in the capital can be met only by 20%, as a result, according to him, 10 hours without light in the capital – the reality at the moment.
The state budget of Ukraine for January-October 2022 was executed with a deficit of UAH 638.7 billion, including the general fund – UAH 643.4 billion against the deficit of UAH 1,121.6 billion planned by the general fund for January-October 2022 hryvnia, said the Ministry of Finance.
“In October, the actual deficit of the state budget amounted to UAH 143.4 billion, including the general fund – UAH 147.1 billion,” the agency said in a release on Tuesday.
According to the operational information of the State Treasury, as indicated by the Ministry of Finance, in January-October 2022, the cash expenditures of the state budget amounted to UAH 1,978.6 billion, including the general fund – UAH 1,817.4 billion, or 86.4% of the list of the reporting period .
“At the same time, in October 2022, cash expenditures of the state budget were made in the amount of UAH 231.7 billion, including the general fund in the amount of UAH 222.5 billion,” the Ministry of Finance specified.
According to him, the income of the general fund in October amounted to UAH 72.8 billion.
