US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, with Ukrainian Central Bank Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko on her left, and Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko on her right, in Washington on April 21, 2022 (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/ Archives/CHIP SOMODEVILLA)
Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko on Wednesday called on kyiv’s international partners to “maximize efforts” to help his country, particularly in view of its future reconstruction, at the annual meeting of the EBRD.
“By defending our country and fighting against Russia, we are taking a huge risk (…) to win this war for Ukraine. We would appreciate it if you would take a small (financial) risk to help” the country, a he added Wednesday during this conference of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
“At present, we can only cover 62% of our primary budgetary needs”, excluding military expenditure, detailed Mr. Marchenko, who participated in the event by video transmission.
The deficit is largely financed by “international aid, the European Commission, the IMF, the World Bank, the EBRD, the EU, the largest developing country economies”, he added.
The American Congress for its part took a first step on Tuesday towards the release of a new huge envelope of nearly 40 billion dollars for Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian government continues to be fully operational” and the country “is committed to ensuring the full service of its debt, the Ukrainian banking system remains stable and liquid”, assured Mr Marchenko.
The Ukrainian government estimates that it needs 5 billion dollars per month to continue to operate the country’s economy, the minister recalled, also calling on international donors to think about financing the future reconstruction of the country.
The reconstruction of Ukraine will be “a major challenge”, but the European Union is ready to “provide very significant support”, assured the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, speaking at the same conference.
“The idea is to link this support, this infrastructure reconstruction, with structural reforms that Ukraine might need, potentially as an EU candidate country,” he added.
The EBRD, which is holding its annual meeting in Marrakesh until Thursday, is expecting a massive contraction of 30% in the Ukrainian economy this year due to the Russian invasion of the country. The World Bank is even more pessimistic and anticipates -45%.
© 2022 AFP
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