All internal resources to be aimed at victory – PM on adoption of state budget

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal emphasised that the budget for the next year, which the Verkhovna Rada adopted on 9 November, clearly set priorities, and the main thing is to defeat the Russians.

Source: Shmyhal commenting on the adoption of the country's main budget

Quote: "The budget has clearly set priorities. All our internal resources will be used to withstand and defeat the enemy."  

Details: Shmyhal said that almost 50% of expenditures in 2024 will be spent on defence and security of Ukraine.

"There will be even more weapons and equipment, more drones, ammunition and missiles. Every hryvnia of taxpayers will go to the army," the prime minister said.

In addition, the budget includes pension indexation and an increase in the minimum wage.

Spending on education will increase by over 20 billion hryvnias (about US$500 million).

Healthcare spending will increase by over 20 billion hryvnias.

Funds for the veterans' support programme will be doubled.

More than 40 billion hryvnias (about US$1.1 billion) are allocated to support businesses.

"This is all that makes us stronger and leads to victory," Shmyhal said.

Background:

Overall, the state budget revenues were set at 1.7 trillion hryvnias (about US$46.8 billion), and expenditures at 3.35 trillion hryvnias (about US$92.3 billion).

The main item of expenditure is defence, with 22.1% of expenditures, or 1.69 trillion hryvnias (about US$46.5 billion), allocated to the security and defence forces.

The 2024 budget also provides for spending on the development of the defence industry:

• 43 billion hryvnias (about US$1.18 billion) for the production of UAVs;
• 43 billion hryvnias for the production of ammunition and weapons.

The rest of the expenditures fall within the budget deficit, which is included in 1.57 trillion hryvnias (about US$43.2 billion). The state budget will be financed by external borrowings (1.67 trillion hryvnias, which is about US$46 billion), placement of domestic government bonds (525.9 billion hryvnias, which is about US$14.4 billion), and privatisation proceeds (4 billion hryvnias, which is about US$110 million).

Almost 470 billion hryvnias (about US$12.9 billion) will be allocated for social protection. Almost 15 billion hryvnias (about US$413 million) will be allocated to support veterans, which is twice as much as last year, including 1 billion hryvnias (about US$27.5 million) for prosthetic devices for soldiers.

Expenditures on healthcare and education will amount to 201 billion hryvnias (about US$5.5 billion) and 69 billion hryvnias (about US$1.9 billion) respectively.

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