Ukraine Needs Another $10Bln Financial Aid To Cover Budget Deficit - Finance Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2023) Kiev needs another $10 billion in international financial assistance from other countries and organizations to cover its budget deficit and ensure stable economic development, Ukrainian Deputy Finance Minister Olga Zykova said.

"Currently, the Ukrainian Government has confirmation of financing from the EU and the US of about USD 30 billion for 2023. However, there is still a need for another USD 10 billion. And here we count on help from other countries and international financial organizations, in particular the IMF (International Monetary Fund)," Zykova told an international business forum in Luxembourg dedicated to the Rapid Recovery of Ukraine, as quoted by the Ukrainian Finance Ministry.

The Ukrainian official added that despite optimizing a number of areas of budget expenditures and increasing tax and customs revenue, Kiev still needed a significant monthly financial assistance of around $3 billion.

Earlier in the week, the chairwoman of the Ukrainian parliament's Committee on Budget, Roksolana Pidlasa, said that the Ukrainian government hoped its Western donors would pledge $10 billion at the March meeting of the G7-led multilateral financial facility to help the country cover its state budget deficit of around $38 billion.

Last week, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the G7 countries had created a multi-donor coordination platform dubbed Financial Ramstein. According to him, the platform will operate in three main areas: continuous short-term and long-term support to Ukraine, international financing and coordination of reforms, and development of the private sector.