By the end of this year, Ukraine must pay $11.6bln of its national debt, which might turn out ann unmanageable task under current budget crisis conditions. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin.

“Pandemics is an emergency for financial system as well. When the budget is facing a huge deficit resulting from quarantine and the administration’s mistakes, the payment of 310bln hryvnia of the national debt by the end of this year will turn out an unmanageable task for our country. The foreign currency national debt alone will take $7.7bln. Today it’s about 217bln at current exchange rate of 28.28UAH/USD, but no one knows how the rate will change by the end of the year.

“There are grounds to believe that in upcoming months the government will have to choose between paying the national debt and funding the most urgent costs for healthcare and social protection of citizens. Therefore, the talks on the national debt restructuring must be initiated immediately,” Lovochkin said.

The politician said Ukraine’s five-year credit-default swaps increased to 1,143 basis points, the worst since 2015, when the administration of the time conducted a catastrophic restructuring of the debt.

“In order to avoid the mistakes of five years ago and not to go with any conditions offered the last minute, the issue of restructuring must be tackled immediately. Otherwise the nation will get much worse conditions tomorrow and worsen the debt that it was forced into by the previous administration,” Lovochkin said.