Kyiv: Ukraine’s annual budget deficit grew by about 33 per cent last year, reaching 1.77 trillion hryvnias (about $42 billion), the government-run news agency reported, citing data from the central bank.
Despite the increase, the deficit was lower than the projected budget gap of 1.85 trillion hryvnias (about $43.8 billion), according to the report by the National Bank of Ukraine.
The document noted that a record influx of foreign aid in December allowed Ukraine to cover state budget expenditures and build a liquidity reserve for early 2025, reports Xinhua, quoting the government-run news agency Ukrinform.
Defence and security, along with social programs, were the primary areas of Ukraine’s budget spending in 2024.
Last year, Ukraine received $41.7 billion in foreign budget support.
Last year, the Ukrainian parliament approved the government’s 2025 budget, which prioritises military expenditures, social support and economic recovery.
The budget allocated 2.23 trillion Ukrainian hryvnias (about $54 billion), out of a general budget of 3.6 trillion hryvnias (about $87 billion), for security and defence in 2025.
Revenues, excluding grants and other international aid, were projected to total 2.05 trillion hryvnias (about $49.6 billion) next year.
The budget also forecasted a GDP growth of 2.7 per cent next year, with inflation at 9.5 per cent.
Later in December 2024, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that the country received $1 billion in financial aid from the United States, backed by frozen Russian assets.
“This is the first tranche of the planned 20 billion dollars that the US is prepared to allocate through the use of frozen Russian assets,” Shmyhal said in a post on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Finance Ministry later clarified that the funds were provided as grant aid under the World Bank’s Second Growth Foundation Development Policy Loan (DPL).
The US assistance is part of a broader commitment made by the Group of Seven (G7) countries, which envisages $50 billion in support for Ukraine secured using proceeds from immobilised Russian assets.
The G7 countries have frozen about 300 billion dollars of Russian assets in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to media reports.
(IANS)
