The Ukrainian Sovereign Investor Conference in London was organized by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine together with the ICU financial group and the Embassy of Ukraine in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The conference was attended by analysts and investors in Ukrainian government securities from London.

Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko, Government Commissioner for Public Debt Management Yuriy Butsa, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Sergiy Nikolaychuk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Vadym Prystaiko and ICU co-founder Konstantin Stetsenko spoke at the conference.

The participants discussed the draft State Budget for 2022, monetary policy, sovereign debt, and key challenges and opportunities for the Ukrainian market in the future.

During the online broadcast, Sergii Marchenko spoke about the priorities of the Budget-2022, which include ensuring a quality level of medicine and education, creating an inclusive educational environment and barrier-free space, strengthening the defense capability and security of the state, support for veterans, infrastructure development and digitalization. The Minister of Finance added that the budget for 2022 is an investment in person, country, and future and is absolutely real, given the macroeconomic forecasts and indicators of the medium-term Budget Declaration.

"For the first time in the history of Ukraine's independence, the state budget was developed based on the medium-term Budget Declaration, which takes into account the main directions of state policy. The declaration provides for a significant fiscal consolidation, which will reduce the deficit to 3.5% of GDP next year, to 3.0% in 2023, and 2.7% in 2024," said Sergii Marchenko.

At the same time, Yuriy Butsa noted the positive dynamics in the implementation of the strategy of public debt management due to increased borrowing in Ukrainian currency and extension of the average term to maturity of UAH-denominated government bonds.

"Improved liquidity in the secondary domestic bonds market due to more active participation of Ukrainian banks in trading long-maturity instruments together with a stable macroeconomic situation and prudent fiscal and monetary policy have led to a return of international investors' appetite for UAH-denominated bonds - since the beginning of the year investments have increased by UAH 10.6 billion (USD 400 million)," said Yuriy Butsa.