Dmitry Schwartz18:36, 07/14/233 min.231

Approximately half of all spending goes to the security and defense sector

In January-June 2023, the general fund of the state budget received almost UAH 870 billion, of which 600 billion are tax revenues, and 270 billion are grants from international partners. In total, according to the results of the first six months of the year, various funds of the state budget received 1 trillion 302 billion hryvnias of taxes, fees and other payments, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a government meeting .

At the same time, state budget expenditures in January-June amounted to 1 trillion 784 billion hryvnias, of which about half was directed to the security and defense sector. In second place are social support programs.

“For six months of this year, 231 billion hryvnias were allocated from the state budget for social payments. Of these funds, 136 billion were allocated for pensions and support of the Pension Fund. 23.1 billion hryvnias were paid in subsidies,” Shmyhal said. 

Other key areas of government spending were medicine, education and support for the regions. “In the first quarter of this year, we managed to ensure the average salary of doctors at the level of almost UAH 22,000.

Only educational subventions for the regions for six months were paid in the amount of more than UAH 56 billion. – for the purchase of new school buses. The total amount of subventions to the regions during this time amounted to UAH 92 billion,” the prime minister added.

He also drew attention to a significant increase in local budget revenues. “In the first half of 2023, the general fund of local budgets received almost UAH 218 billion.

This is UAH 42.5 billion more than last year. The balance of funds in the accounts of local budgets and budgetary institutions has already amounted to UAH 170 billion,” the head said. government.

He also stressed that the Cabinet of Ministers sees and clearly understands how Ukraine will go this year in terms of financing the budget deficit. This makes it possible to ensure the macroeconomic and macrofinancial stability of our state.

“We have already begun to prepare for next year. We are actively working with partners. First of all, with the EU, the G7 countries and international financial organizations,” Shmygal said.Considering that the European Union is launching a four-year program worth 50 billion euros, which, in particular, is designed to help finance Ukraine’s budget deficit, the government today created an interdepartmental working group to prepare an appropriate action plan. 

State budget of Ukraine

As UNIAN reported earlier, the external needs for financing the state budget deficit of Ukraine in 2023 amount to more than $42 billion. 

At the same time, external borrowings and grants cannot be used for defense and security needs; only tax funds and attracted internal borrowings from war bonds can be spent on this.Ukraine’s main financial donors are the European Union, the United States of America and the International Monetary Fund.

(C)UNIAN 2023