Ukrainian Finance Ministry attracts almost $2.8 bln from int'l partners in Oct
MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Ukraine's state budget received about $2.8 billion of external financing in October, with grants provided on a non-refundable basis accounting for more than 40% of the total amount of financial assistance, Ukrainian media reported on Tuesday, citing the Finance Ministry's press service.
The donors in October 2023 were the European Union with $1.6 billion (concessional financing) and the United States with $1.15 billion (grant), the ministry said.
"The funds from the EU are the ninth tranche of a large-scale Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) for 2023. The total amount of funding under the MFA program reaches 18 billion euros, of which Ukraine has already received 15 billion euros," the Finance Ministry said.
At the same time, the grant from the U.S. is part of the fifth additional financing under the World Bank's project Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance in Ukraine (PEACE), it said.
Ukraine has already received $10.9 billion in grant funding from the U.S. in 2023, the ministry also said.
International funding is used to finance priority state budget expenditures, in particular to ensure social protection of the population, humanitarian needs, salaries of employees in the education and healthcare sectors, the ministry said.
In total, the Finance Ministry attracted about $35.4 billion in external financing for urgent needs of the state budget in the first 10 months of 2023.
The Ukrainian Finance Ministry added that it is committed to accountability and efficient use of financial aid from its partners. In particular, the Finance Ministry in cooperation with the World Bank ensures the transparency of the attraction and use of external funding.
The Finance Ministry is monitoring the use of direct budget support from the U.S. government jointly with Deloitte Consulting, which implements the USAID SOERA project, and performs a verification in accordance with agreed procedures to determine the eligible public expenditures made by Ukraine under the PEACE in Ukraine project with the auditing company PriceWaterhouseCoopers Ukraine.
