Ukraine’s finance minister warns of ‘more difficult’ 2025
Ukraine is likely to face uncertainty and challenges in 2025 as financial support from Kiev’s foreign backers is expected to further dwindle, according to Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko.
Reliant on financial assistance from its Western donors, Kiev received a $60-billion US aid package this year, despite a long stall in Congress. Next year, however, it should not expect similar financial injections, as Western aid largely depends on the outcome of the presidential election in the US later this year, Marchenko told RBC Ukraine on Tuesday.
“The year 2025 will be more difficult. This is a year of uncertainty, a year of decisions that may not work out,” the minister said.
While noting that Ukraine is “ready for the most difficult decisions” and should “rely only on itself,” Marchenko said that to make ends meet and to be able to “fight,” Kiev will need an additional $12-15 billion “buffer” from the West in 2025.
“We go to our partners and say: there’s a deficit of 500 billion hryvnia ($12.1 billion) and there is a solution on how to cover it,” he said. “But we also expect that for 2025 you will give us sufficient financial assurances so we can finance the budget.”
According to the Ukrainian Finance Ministry, the country’s public debt surged by more than $1 billion in June, with its total volume now exceeding $152 billion.
The International Monetary Fund in June revised downwards Ukraine’s gross domestic product forecast for this year to 2.5% from its April estimate of 3.2%, citing worsening sentiment among consumers and businesses over the course of the conflict with Russia.
Last week, US-based credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded Ukraine into a default zone over its $20 billion debt. According to the agency, a default or default-like process has already begun in Ukraine. Fitch also forecasts the country’s government debt to surge to 92% of Ukrainian GDP this year.
