Ukraine is to pay 5 out of $50B of its external debt this year, PM Hroisman says
Ukraine’s governments borrowed $50 billion between 2005 and 2013, of which $5 billion must be paid off in 2018.
As reported by a correspondent for Censor.NET, this was said by Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman at Q & A session in the Ukrainian parliament.
The PM said he did not put blame on the previous governments: "I'm saying that almost $ 50 billion was borrowed when those governments were in power from 2005 to 2013 inclusive. That's all I’m saying. They put $50 billion dollars on our shoulders and the entire Ukrainian nation is carrying these debts. We must take cheaper loans in order to restructure and repay them (the old debts – Ed.). And there is no other way out," Hroisman said.
According to him, 5 out of the $50 billion must be discharged in 2018 and another $35 billion - in the coming years.
"We need to borrow funds, [get access to] refinancing. My goal is to pay off all the debts," the PM said.
He also assured that he is guided solely by the best interests of the state and its citizens while this principle is applied both in further reforming and in cooperation with partners including international financial institutions.
Hroisman named several issues being on the agenda of cooperation with Ukraine’s partners which included setting up a fair gas price in Ukraine. According to him, there is no simple solution to this issue. There are two facets that must be paid attention to: consumption of gas by the population and development of domestic production, solving of which would allow turning a fuel importing country into an exporting one.
"We would be able to set up gas prices in our sole discretion when we become an importer rather than an exporter. We seek to become an exporter, which means reducing gas prices by 20-30 percent," the head of the government said.
