The debt load on Ukraine’s budget and economy has reached a critical point and keeps rising. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM — FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin, commenting on data that the public debt of Ukraine rose by $1.5bln or by 2 percent, having reached $79.82bln.

“The national debt has almost reached $80bln, and it grew by $1.5bln in four months due to government printing domestic government loan bonds to pump up the budget. This leads to the debt loop going even tighter on Ukraine’s neck,” Lovochkin said.

According to the politician, the debt service expenses reached $39bln over the first four months of 2019, which is 13.2 percent of expenses of the general fund of the state budget. One budget hryvnia in eight was spent on debt interest payment. And the total amount for servicing and payment of the debt equals 51 percent of the budget expenses.

“In the present situation, the currency risks of the public debt refinancing persist. Ukraine must repay about $6bln in foreign currency debt alone by the end of 2019. The next peak payment of $1.9bln is due in September. After the previous peak payments in May ($1bln in Eurobonds redemption), the gold reserves depleted by $1.2bln to $19.3bln. No wonder there have been talks of a default recently. There’s only one way to avoid it — by creating the most favorable conditions for the economy. There’s no other way to get out of the debt loop,” Lovochkin summed up.