Arseniy Yatsenyuk: We want to repay foreign debts, but on the terms offered by the Government and the Ukrainian state
The Verkhovna Rada has supported a Government bill "On peculiarities of transactions with the public, publicly guaranteed debt and the local debt" (No. 2898) and corresponding amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine (No. 2899), which allows the Government to impose a moratorium on payments of foreign debt to private creditors.
While presenting the bills at a session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Tuesday, May 19, Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that the Government in synergy with the Parliament "more than a month are engaged in activity to stabilize the finance of the Ukrainian state, to fill the budget, reduce the debt burden on the Ukrainian budget and give people an opportunity to feel what living standards are changing - that salary can grow, new jobs created, incomes of citizens indexed. And that life in Ukraine will just be better."
"For this purpose
the Parliament, the Government and the coalition, together with the President
of Ukraine, have made a number of steps for reforms in the country. And these
steps are now assessed primarily by our foreign creditors," the Prime
Minister stressed, recalling that following the recent Ukraine- European Union summit
the EU official documents contained that "Ukraine is not just talking
about reforms - Ukraine has implemented and Ukraine will continue to pursue
these reforms."
Arseniy Yatsenyuk
noted that Ukraine receives support from its international partners, however, “this
support is insufficient unless we make right and strong decisions, not just to
balance the budget, but to remove the debt burden from future
generations".
"To prevent our
children, our grandchildren paying the debts of Viktor
Yanukovych is the task of this Parliament", emphasized the Head of
Government.
In the framework of cooperation
with the International Monetary Fund and other foreign creditors last year,
Ukraine received a bailout package: "We obtained $ 9 billion loans from
our western partners. But we paid back $ 14 billion of loans to our western
partners. Is it fair for the country that is at war and under fire?"
"I consider the
private creditors of the country should take real steps to help the Ukrainian
people to overcome the Russian aggression, to settle the economic situation and
become a real European state with a European lifestyle," said the Prime
Minister.
He recalled that previous
year, when he had been appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine,
the country's debt amounted about $ 72 billion: "Throughout a year we have
reduced the debt by 3 billion US dollars. That's good. But we cannot live following
the formula: to take new loans in order to repay old ones. We should put an end
to this formula".
“Overall
current liabilities of the country approximately 70 billion US dollars. The number of external debts of the country,
for example, as of 1 January 2008 was just 17,6
billion. Over three years Viktor Yanukovych and his gang managed to take 40
billion dollars that disappeared. People didn't see them. But
the state budget felt the burden, and it became the burden for each Ukrainian
citizen, each Ukrainian family. I want us to free Ukrainian people from
debt load, the country is facing today accumulated by Yanukovych and his
associates," emphasized Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
The Prime Minister highlighted
that this year alone the total amount envisaged in the State Budget for external
payments is equal to the sum envisaged for the entire national security and defense: "The sum worth 90 billion hryvnias
we have to take from the budget and pay back to our foreign creditors for funds
not borrowed by us".
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The Ukrainian Government,
according to him, began talks with the creditors to restructure the debt. He
noted that the total amount of financial assistance from our external
partners: International Monetary Fund, G7 countries and other contributors makes
up $ 25 billion for four years: "At this, out of the sum worth 25 billion
dollars we can use a maximum of 15 billion to repay our external debts. And
the difference worth $ 10 billion to be spend to replenish
foreign reserves, which, incidentally, grew up and now make it possible to
maintain currency stability." "So, we have for
the next four years $ 15 billion as our financial asset," he explained. On liabilities, the Head of the Government said
that Ukraine has to pay $30 billion of the external debts and $17 billion
U.S. of internal debts in four years: “We have 15, but we owe 47 billion. The
question is: how to pay? We can't pay these debts from pockets of Ukrainians
". Arseniy Yatsenyuk appealed to external creditors:
"We ask our external private creditors to listen to the proposal of the
Government of Ukraine and to restructure the debts of Ukraine, which are
owned by private lenders, on the terms proposed by the Ukrainian Government.
In the next four years we need to get a resource from this reorganisation, reduce the load on the Ukrainian state
from external debts amounting of about 15 billion U.S. dollars." In accordance with the passed lows the Cabinet of Ministers
is entitled to set a moratorium for foreign payments on debt obligations to
exclusively private creditors on the list of duties specified in the schedule
to the law. Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that such a right the
Government can use in case of need – if we do not agree with our
creditors." "And we hope that we will agree with our
creditors," the Head of Government said. "We want to pay, but we want to pay on the
terms on which the Ukrainian Government and the Ukrainian state offers,"
Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted. He stressed that laws mention solely private
creditors, who are holders of the state external debt of Ukraine: "we
are not talking about the state Ukrainian banks which pay their
obligations." "This debt operation that is conducted by the
Government of Ukraine together with our creditors has no negative effect on
either the Ukrainian banks or at currency exchange rate, but on the contrary
it will be positive, because after the operation the debt of Ukraine will be
smaller, and this means that the confidence of both lenders and investors
will be more, because the Ukrainian economy will be more healthy," the
Head of Government stressed. He addressed to private lenders, "If you want
to support Ukraine, if you rightly welcome Ukrainian citizens and the
Ukrainian state, which is suffering from Russian aggression, suffering from
war, lost 20% of the economy, lost through the Russian military aggression
Crimea, where tens of thousands of Russian militaries trample Ukrainian land,
help us not by word, but a dollar, or rather, billions of dollars". "The Ukrainian people will appreciate it and
it will be real answer and help for Ukraine, and Europe as a whole," A.
Yatsenyuk said. The PM appealed to the MPs of Ukraine to pass
these bills: "let's help the Ukrainian people to save money, get a
resource for the indexation of incomes. And let's release our children and
our future generations from this burden created by Yanukovych and his
predecessors." The Verkhovna Rada supported the bill "On
peculiarities of transactions with the state or guaranteed by the state debt
and the local debt" (No. 2898) and corresponding amendments to the
Budget Code of Ukraine (No. 2899). 256 and 246 MPs voted “For” respectively. |