Ukraine foreign debt reaches 81.8% of GDP in July

Макроэкономика 19.09.2014 Ukraine’s gross foreign debt fell 0.4% (USD 0.6 bln) in 2Q14 to USD 136.8 bln, or 81.8% of GDP as of July 1, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on Sept. 18. Short-term external debt declined 1.4% to USD 58.9 bln in 2Q14, including USD 29.8 bln in long-term debt maturing through the year. Debt decreased most in the categories of private non-banking sectors (USD -2.9 bln) and the banking sector (USD -1.1 bln). At the same time, state liabilities and liabilities of monetary authorities increased during the quarter by USD 2.7 bln and USD 841 mln, respectively. Alexander Paraschiy: The warfare is the core source of debt capital outflow in 2Q14. At the same time, an IMF loan tranche (USD 3.2 bln), a Eurobond placement (USD 1 bln) and various loans from IFIs prevented gross external debt from dropping even further in the quarter. In 2H14, we expect the tendency with private debt reduction to continue while new loans from the IMF, World Bank and from the EU will keep flowing in. Therefore, we project gross foreign debt to increase in 2H14 on the back of IFI support. However, we do not expect foreign debt to exceed USD 140 bln as of end-2014.