Ukraine receives World Bank's 446.8 mln euro loan with 424.6 mln euro guarantees from UK

MOSCOW. July 1 (Interfax) - Ukraine has received a 446.8-million-euro loan as part of the World Bank's project "Public Expenditure Support to Ensure Sustainable Public Administration in Ukraine", the Ukrainian media quoted Ukraine's Finance Ministry as saying on Thursday.

"Of this amount, 424.6 million euros were guaranteed by the United Kingdom," the Finance Ministry said.

The funds will be used to reimburse the state budget expenditures spent on the remuneration of public servants and employees of budget-funded educational establishments both at the national and regional levels, the ministry said in a press release.

"It is important for Ukraine to maintain the potential, efficiency and sustainability of state governance. These borrowings will help ensure financing for budget-paid employees. We are grateful to the government of the United Kingdom and the World Bank team for their support of Ukraine at this difficult period in our history," the press release quoted Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko as saying.

As reported, Ukraine on Thursday received a $1.3-billion grant from the United States through a multi-donor account, and an additional loan from Japan equivalent to $500 million at the beginning of this week.

The Ukrainian government has said on a number of occasions that in today's conditions, it needs an additional $5 billion or so every month to finance the budget. The Ukrainian Finance Ministry initially expected the amount of foreign financing to increase to $4.8 billion in June from $1.5 billion in May. However, before this Japanese loan was disbursed, Ukraine had received a mere $1.5 billion or so in foreign financing since the beginning of June.

The deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on finances and tax and customs policy, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, in turn, has said that, without the World Bank's latest loan with UK guarantees, the overall amount of external financial assistance provided to Ukraine in June stood at 126.5 billion hryvni, or over $4.3 billion under today's official exchange rate.