Page 40 - UKRRptSept18

debt amortisations are $1.8bn for the rest of 2018 and increase to $3.3bn in 2019 and $3.9bn in 2020 (including bond repayments of $1.6bn in September 2019 and $2.4bn in 2020).
Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance plans to cut public debt to 60% of GDP by the end of this year , acting Finance ministry Oksana Markarova told the cabinet. Earlier the Finance ministry’s goal was to cut debt to 62% by end-2018. Presenting an updated mid-term debt strategy to the cabinet, Markarova said the goal for end-2019 is now 52%, rather than 58% earlier, and the goal for end-2020 is no more than 49% of GDP. Last year direct public debt declined to 61.5% from the peak of 69.2% of GDP in 2016, and total public debt, including guaranteed debt, declined to 71.8% from 80.9%, according to the Finance ministry.
Finance ministry noted that the share of foreign debt in total debt in Ukraine is higher than in other similar countries and regional neighbours. On June 30, foreign debt amounted to 56.7% of total debt. In the structure of public debt, domestic hryvnia-denominated debt accounted for 36%, followed by Eurobonds (31%), debt to IFIs (23%), domestic FX-denominated debt (7%) and ‘other debt’ (3%).
The Finance ministry is going to increase the share of hryvnia-denominated debt and long-term debt in the medium term, simplify access to Ukrainian debt for foreign investors, attract more loans from IFIs and foreign governments, buy back some of the domestic bonds to mature in 2019-2020, and cut the state share of the banking sector in line with the updated strategy. Currently state-owned banks account for more than half of the banking sector assets.
A mission of Ukraine's main donor, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will make a working visit to Kyiv from September 6 to September 19 to discuss the country’s crucial but stalled $17.5bn stand by package, according to a statement published by the multinational lender's office in the country on August 13.
The statement followed the adoption of amendments to the new law necessary for establishing the nation's anti-corruption court, which is a key condition for a new tranche from the support programme. Alongside the anti-corruption court legislation, two other requirements are demanded by the IMF before it restarts its programme. Specifically, the Ukrainian government should increase the gas price for households, and the finance ministry should take measures to ensure that the 2018 budget deficit will not exceed the planned level of circa 2.5% of GDP .
New IMF funding is crucially important for Ukraine, which is running out of cash and has large bond repayments to make this autumn and next year. Sovereign external debt amortisations are $1.8bn for the rest of 2018 and increase to $3.3bn in 2019 and $3.9bn in 2020 (including bond repayments of $1.6bn in September 2019 and $2.4bn in 2020).
Ukraine's Finance Ministry is going to establish an agency for managing public debt , according to acting Finance Ministry Oksana Markarova. "At present, together with government commissioner on debt issues [...], we are working with the World Bank team to choose the best model for the functioning of such an agency in order to be able to attract professionals for this work with
40 UKRAINE Country Report September 2018 www.intellinews.com