Ukraine’s government prepared a draft budget this week, meeting their own deadline in a rare show of punctuality.
The 2017 draft budget – approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on Sep. 15 – envisions revenues of Hr 712.5 billion ($27.5 billion), and expenditures of Hr 790 billion ($30.5 billion).
According to the draft, which still needs parliamentary approval, the budget deficit in 2017 will be 3 percent of the GDP, compared to 3.7 percent in 2016.
Analysts from Dragon Capital said in an emailed note that the government’s macroeconomic forecast “looks realistic and is generally consistent with our projections.”
Economist Anders Åslund welcomed the move by Ukraine’s government.
“Ukraine’s government submitted its budget to Rada on Sep 15 as planned. Budget deficit 3 percent of GDP (Dragon Capital). Good,” he wrote on his Twitter account on Sept. 16.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman published the key figures of the state budget 2017 on Sep. 16. In a presentation posted online, he called the next year’s budget honest and balanced.
Adding money to state defence and security, roads, energy efficiency, agriculture, and decentralization of power are among the budget’s priorities.
Defence and security will require 5 percent of the GDP, according to the proposed budget.
To repair and build the country’s roads, Ukraine will spend Hr 14.2 billion ($0.5 billion) in 2017, and plans to attract about $1 billion from international donors.
For energy efficiency, the government allocated Hr 800 million ($30.9 million), and is supposed to get 100 million euros from foreign donors.
Local budget resources would be Hr 389.8 billion ($15 billion) under the proposal – 16 percent more than what was allotted in 2016. Their revenues are also expected to be 16 percent higher than are this year – Hr 174.5 billion ($ 6.7 billion).
According to the draft budget, the minimum wage and the minimum cost of living will increase by almost 10 percent – to Hr 1,762 ($68). The salaries of doctors and teachers are also supposed to go up.
The government also plans to spend Hr 455.7 million ($17.6 million) on the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest that will be hosted in Kyiv.
The government allocated a little more, Hr 500 million ($19.3 million), for production and distribution of Ukrainian movies, than last year.
Volodymyr Dubrovskiy, an analyst with the Center for social and economic research CASE Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post that the figures “look realistic”, however, it will take some time to analyze the document, as it might consist of many “possible hidden things.”
Last year the government presented the draft of the budget in December, and the Verkhovna Rada passed it only on Dec. 25, 2015.
