"The steps undertaken by the Government towards fiscal stabilization is the only right recipe. Nobody did this for two decades because all worried about their own political ratings," stressed Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk at a Government’s meeting on Wednesday, 23 March.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk underlined that thanks to the Government's fiscal stabilization the budget deficit decreased fourfold: "In 2014 it was over 10%, and today it is four times less - 2.5%."

The Prime Minister stressed that he supported and keeps on supporting the policy of the Minister of Finance of Ukraine "in fiscal stabilization, as well as tax and budget reform": "This is the only correct policy, demonstrated by the Government and the Minister of Finance."

In addition, Ukraine’s gross external debt decreased by USD23.5 billion - 16.5%. Public and state-guaranteed debt declined by almost USD7 billion. The Prime Minister said that some representatives of the Ukrainian political establishment "always say that the Government is borrowing money": "They have some problems with math. If the Government borrows money, the debt must grow. If we carry out correct policy, the debt must decrease."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk called debt service among the challenges the Government faced:"We do not take these loans, but we have to write them off, restructure and attract funds, the cost of credit resources of which is several times lower than it was before us. Previously it made up 7 or 10%, now thanks to our program with the International Monetary Fund is 1%."

"We managed to reduce the actual expenditures of the state budget of approximately UAH65 billion in the current year thanks to the wide restructuring programme as well as write-off of the debt," underlined Arseniy Yatsenyuk.