Govt approves 2023 draft state budget with deficit of almost UAH 1.3 tln – PM

KYIV. Sept 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The government of Ukraine has approved a draft state budget for 2023 with revenues of UAH 1.279 trillion and expenditures of UAH 2.573 trillion, the Ministry of Finance has announced.

"The monthly deficit is over $3 billion," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, speaking at a government meeting on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Finance clarified that the income of the general fund is set at UAH 1.147 billion, while the expenses of the general fund are UAH 2.269 billion.

"The budget deficit is envisaged at the level of 20% of GDP, which is planned to be covered by state borrowings in the amount of UAH 1.687 trillion [the total fund is UAH 1.517 trillion], of which UAH 415.0 billion is to pay off the public debt," the ministry said.

Shmygal noted that this project is built on a "conservative, average pessimistic calculation." In particular, the average annual US dollar exchange rate is set at the level of UAH 42.2/$1.

The Prime Minister also reminded that this year the budget is reviewed on a monthly basis and predicted that this situation would continue at the beginning of next year.

MP Oleksiy Honcharenko specified on his Telegram channel that the exchange rate at the end of 2023 is expected to be at the level of UAH 50/$1.

He claims that the draft 2023 state budget includes $38 billion in support from the United States, $15 billion from the IMF and almost $5 billion from the EU.

MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak added that out of UAH 1.517 trillion of planned state borrowings of the general fund, 94%, or UAH 1.426 billion, falls on external borrowings.

According to him, by the end of next year, the public debt may reach UAH 6.406 trillion, or 100.1% of GDP, including 78.7% of external debt.

As reported, this year the government estimates the need for financing the budget at $5 billion a month.