Today, September 15, the Government has considered and approved the draft State Budget for 2020, which will be submitted to Parliament in due time as required by law.

"We have only had two weeks to process this document, so this is the first version. It is based on macroeconomic indicators that were approved in the spring. In two weeks, we will submit to Parliament a Government Action Program, sharing our thoughts on how we see the instruments of economic growth. If necessary, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade will review the macroeconomic indicators and we will make the appropriate changes", comments the document Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk.

At that, according to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the most important thing is to lay a completely different approach – which is efficiency - as the principles of financing expenditures in the draft State Budget 2020.

"We adhere to the principle that it should be less interference of the state in the economy. Budget 2020 will be an efficiency budget, followed by an economic growth budget. We are planning to reduce the expenditures for the maintenance of the state apparatus because a huge amount of public funds is spent inefficiently. Meanwhile, this Government will not raise taxes, they should be gradually reduced. Instead, we will make them equal for all. Because when taxes are high, but not everyone pays them, it is the height of injustice. And we will change it", Oleksiy Honcharuk emphasized.

The Prime Minister stressed that 2020 will be a year of change of accents, including increased government support for small and medium-sized businesses, in particular, the farming sector. "We have changed the approach to state support for the agricultural sector, instead of subsidizing large businesses - we are focusing on support for small farmers. In particular, we plan to offset the interest rate on loans so that smaller enterprises are actively involved and have no worse conditions for buying land when the land market is operational", said the Prime Minister of Ukraine.

Oleksiy Honcharuk also added that 2019 would be the last year when the annual budget planning took place. "Our strategy is to reduce the public debt year after year. We need more than one year to do that – it’s critical to plan for the medium and long term. This year is the last when we adopt a one-year budget. In the future the approval of a comprehensive 3-year declaration will be followed by the adoption of the budget", comments the Head of Government.

Minister for Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Tymofiy Mylovanov added that before the macroeconomic forecast had been developed by the Ministry of Economy once a year. “But we have to constantly forecast the economic development on a systemic basis. In the next few weeks, we will review the structure and try to build a more systematic approach to the macroeconomic forecast”, the Minister said and added that certain indicators could be revised.

Commenting on the document, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova noted: “The budget is not only timely, but it is also realistic and properly balanced. It is a budget that will allow the country to maintain the macroeconomic stability we have achieved and, on the basis of this stability, to achieve an abrupt takeoff in the economy."