The government decided to limit funding for non-priority expenditures due to the difficult situation with public finances.
This was reported by the Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky.
He noted that part of the planned international assistance has not yet arrived, in particular because Ukraine has not had time to fulfill some of its obligations. The situation with public finances remains difficult, so the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decision that determines the priority of expenditures.
First of all, the state will finance defense, pensions and social benefits, as well as salaries for teachers, doctors, and other public sector employees.
Instead, non-critical expenditures will be postponed. These include new construction, reconstruction and major repairs, the arrangement of parks and squares, fountains, paving stones, and other landscaping works.
Koretsky stressed that these projects are not being canceled, but only postponed until resources are needed more for defense and social benefits. He also called on local authorities to review their budgets and limit similar expenditures.
- On September 1, the prime minister announced a “strict austerity regime” for the budget and said that there is currently a $27 billion deficit in the defense budget, which Ukraine is asking its partners to cover with emergency funding. But the EU said that they are not yet considering new ways to urgently finance Ukraine.
- Two weeks later, Koretsky declared the situation with state finances “close to critical”. According to him, a delay in voting on the necessary bills in the Verkhovna Rada could cost Ukraine a significant part of the $29.5 billion in international funding.
- At that time, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko reported that Ukraine had begun to forcefully limit state spending.
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