KYIV, February 29 ------ Ukraine needs about $3 billion in foreign financial aid on a monthly basis to get through 2024, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said, highlighting the challenges Kyiv faces as U.S. support begins to falter.
Marchenko said Ukraine's macroeconomic stability during the war with Russia had been possible due to a steady inflow of international financial aid from Kyiv's allies, something he added remained crucial this year. "In 2024, the monthly need for external financing will reach about $3 billion. We cannot allow a delay in attracting external financing," Marchenko said in a statement.
Ukraine has received more than $73 billion in financial aid from its Western partners in the two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. So far this year the level of support has been much lower as major packages from the European Union and the United States have suffered major delays. The EU finally approved its 50 billion euro four-year facility for Ukraine this month but the U.S. financial and military support package remains stuck in Congress, blocked by Republican lawmakers. Addressing finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven major industrialised nations on Wednesday, Marchenko said the government had been more active on the domestic debt market this year and looked for other ways to increase its budget revenues.
Senior executives of several of Ukraine's biggest state-owned companies have told Reuters they had paid some of their obligatory budget payments in advance to help the government cover the budget deficit. Ukraine's budget gap is about $37 billion this year. Ukraine channels most of its budget revenues into the defence effort and relies on foreign aid to pay pensions and state employees' wages, and to cover social and humanitarian spending.
Finance ministry data shows Ukraine received about $1.2 billion from Japan and Norway in the first two months of this year. "International donors' help is not just a financial issue, but an opportunity to support millions of Ukrainians who need it and to save the lives of thousands of soldiers," Marchenko said.
Source: reuters.com
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