Business news from Ukraine

The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has received $118 million on a non-refundable basis from Japan under the World Bank’s Health Enhancement and Life Saving (HEAL Ukraine) and Housing Repair for People’s Empowerment (HOPE) projects.

“The raised funds under the HEAL and HOPE projects will help the government to provide its citizens with adequate assistance, in particular, to expand the range of medical services and access to them, as well as to ensure overcoming the consequences caused by Russia’s armed aggression, to restore the housing infrastructure of Ukraine,” Minister Serhiy Marchenko was quoted as saying in the release of the Ministry of Finance on Monday.

It is specified that the attracted grant funding consists of $70 million under the HEAL Ukraine project, aimed at supporting the state budget as a reimbursement of incurred expenses under the Medical Guarantee Program, and $48.2 million – under the HOPE project, the funds of which are used to reimburse state budget expenditures used for compensatory payments to homeowners for repairs in apartment buildings and private houses in need of minor and medium repairs.

As reported, Ukraine received a record $8.9bn in international financial aid in March after only $1.2bn cumulatively in the first two months.

Due to the low external support, international reserves fell by 3.8%, or $1.47 billion, to $37.05 billion in February, after falling by 4.9%, or $1.98 billion hryvnia, in January.

The National Bank had forecast that the latest external inflows would allow international reserves to recover substantially. In January, it lowered their forecast for the end of 2024 to $40.4 billion from $44.7 billion.