In a letter to the Coordination Group for Financial Assistance to Ukraine, Shmyhal said that the money will be needed next month and that it must be allocated to meeting Ukraine’s basic budgetary needs.
“To maintain macroeconomic stability, it is inevitable to receive sufficient, rapid and predictable external financing starting from January 2024,” Šmõhal said in a letter seen by Bloomberg.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance announced last week that financing needs in 2024 amount to $37.3 billion. Ukraine has received more than $42 billion in foreign aid this year.
Šmõhal announced that the focus must be on urgent needs: salaries and pensions of teachers and civil servants, and not on long-term reconstruction and economic recovery.
“It is hardly possible to discuss restoration and reconstruction projects when we are grappling with the survival priorities of 2024,” wrote Šmõhal, who said the donors should meet as early as January.
“We cannot wait until March to finance our social needs,” Šmõhal announced.
Previously, Finance Minister Serhi Marchenko said that budget deficits will occur in the first two months of the year.
It is not known how the recipients of the letter reacted, Bloomberg notes.
2023-12-29 08:04:05
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