Ukrainian Finance Ministry explains delay in submitting budget declaration by talks with IMF on deficit in 2026

MOSCOW. June 5 (Interfax) - The delay in submitting the budget declaration is due to the difficult negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the development scenarios of the situation in the coming years and the budget deficit level, Ukrainian media outlet said, citing Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko's statement at the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday.

"The complexity of the budget declaration issue is now due to the fact that we would need to reduce the GDP deficit from this year's 19.4% to 9.9% next year in accordance with the IMF program. It is a baseline scenario," Marchenko said.

"If you understand how difficult it is and how serious these numbers are, it involves hundred billion UAH in lesser expenditures than the budget we currently have," he said.

The Finance Ministry sent a letter explaining and justifying these reasons to the government and the Verkhovna Rada, Marchenko said, adding that the IMF mission had left Kiev only a week ago.

The ministry is now pragmatically planning the budget declaration under two scenarios, baseline and alternative, which envisages the continuation of the crisis for the entire 2026, he said.

"The declaration will be submitted to government and will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada soon," he said.

He requested the members of the parliament to adopt bills on Ukraine's obligations to its international partners in a timely manner.

"We have already lost 1.2 billion euros in the first quarter. Of them, 500 million euros were grant funds lost because of the failures to vote for bills and obligations under the Ukraine Facility," he said.