Page 42 - UKRRptDec19

companies to produce alcohol.
A foreign investor is sought for the sale next year of Centrenergo, ​the nation’s largest coal-fired electricity producer, Prime Minister Honcharuk told the Economic Forum. State-controlled Centrenergo draws on three plants – one in Kyiv, one in Kharkiv and one Donetsk – to produce 7,600 MW of power. “Centrenergo is the top priority for privatization. And I want this company to be privatized by an external, real player. And the government will do everything for a strong player to come here.” Last month, Dmytro Sennichenko, the new head of the State Property Fund, said a new court decision has cleared the way for the sale of the massive power company.
Prime Minister Honcharuk ordered ministries on November 14 to transfer at least 500 state companies to the State Property Fund of Ukraine by the end of December for privatization​ in 2020. At the same government meeting, Dmitry Sennichenko, the new head of the Fund, said five large privatizations are planned for 2020: Centrenergo, Elektrotyazhmash, Krasnolimanska Coal Company, Odessa Port Plant, President Hotel, and United Mining and Chemical Company, or OGKH. Of 3,643 state enterprises, the government intends to keep only 21%, or 776, said Pavlo Kukhta, deputy minister of economy, trade and agriculture development.
6.2 ​Debt
The Finance Ministry plans to sharply raise its hryvnia portion of government debt, from 40% today to 66% by the end of the year, according to figures presented Thursday by Yuriy Butsa, Government Commissioner for Public Debt Management. "We will continue to increase the share of borrowings in national currency," he told a Fitch Ratings conference in Kyiv. Next year, the government plans to borrow $4.9bn externally and UAH231bn internally, currently the equivalent of $9.6bn. State debt payments due next year are the current equivalent of $11.7bn.
The Rada also gave final approval Friday to the establishment of the Debt Agency of Ukraine,​ the Finance Ministry reports on Facebook. Borrowing a government debt management model used in many EU countries, the Finance Ministry will set strategic goals only. The Ministry reports: “Acting as a separate central executive body, the Debt Agency will not be dependent on political factors, which is important for enhancing investor confidence and predictability of long-term public debt management processes.” Partly due to hryvnia appreciation, the public debt to GDP ratio is officially forecast to drop to 45% in 2020, down from 80% in 2016.
The direct and state-guaranteed debt of Ukraine in 2020 will drop to 52.4% of GDP vs 61% of GDP in 2018​, according to the nation's Finance Minister of Ukraine Oksana Markarova. Success in privatisation could help reduce this figure "more dramatically," Makarova wrote on her Facebook page on November 5. Ukraine’s state and state-guaranteed debt rose by 1.3% month-on-month to $83bn in September, the Finance Ministry reported on October 28. State domestic debt jumped 7.6% m/m to $34.3bn, while state foreign debt dropped 2.9% m/m to $38.7bn. State-guaranteed debt slid 2.4% to $10bn. In UAH terms, overall state debt declined 3.4% m/m to UAH1,998bn (56% of 2018 GDP).​ ​According to Kyiv-based analysts​, state and state-guaranteed debt will reach $80.8bn in 2019, or around 53% of GDP.
42​ UKRAINE Country Report​ December 201 ​ ​www.intellinews.com