Ukraine receives $118 mln in grants from Japan under WB's HEAL, HOPE projects

MOSCOW. April 1 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Finance Ministry has received $118 million on a non-refundable basis from Japan under the World Bank's Health Enhancement and Life-saving (HEAL Ukraine) and Housing Repair for People's Empowerment (HOPE) projects.

"The raised funds under the HEAL and HOPE projects will help the government to provide appropriate assistance to citizens, in particular, to expand the range of medical services and access to them, ensure mitigating the aftermath of the crisis, and restore the Ukrainian housing infrastructure," Ukrainian media quoted Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko as saying in a statement released by the ministry's press service.

The attracted grant funding consists of $70 million under the HEAL Ukraine project, aimed at supporting the state budget as reimbursement of incurred expenses under the Medical Guarantee Program, and $48.2 million under the HOPE project, the funds of which are used to reimburse state budget expenditures used for compensatory payments to homeowners for repairs in apartment buildings and private houses in need of minor and medium repairs.

As reported, Ukraine received a record $8.9 billion in international financial aid in March, after $1.2 billion in total in the first two months.

Due to low foreign support, international reserves fell 3.8%, or by $1.47 billion, to $37.05 billion in February, after they dropped 4.9%, or by $1.98 billion in January.

The National Bank projected that the latest foreign inflows would allow international reserves to recover substantially. In January, it downgraded their forecast for the end of 2024 to $40.4 billion from $44.7 billion.