The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine recently provided state guarantees to Ukrzaliznytsia for a loan in the amount of 700 million dollars for the construction of a road-rail bridge across the Dnipro. People's Deputy, member of the parliamentary budget committee Yevhen Zhovtiak believes that thereby the Yanukovych-Azarov government set a debt anti-record, proUA was informed by the UNP press service.
"The year is not yet over, and the government has made external borrowings totaling an astronomical sum of almost two billion dollars," Zhovtiak stated.
According to his calculations, this sum consists of the following components – two eurobond issues of 600 and 500 million dollars each, state guarantees to Ukravtodor for the construction of the Kyiv-Odesa road (480 million dollars) and the already mentioned government guarantee to Ukrzaliznytsia in the amount of 700 million dollars. Zhovtiak recalled that "according to international methodology, loans under state guarantees are equated to the assumption of actually sovereign debt obligations." "Together this amounts to 2 billion 280 million dollars," he summarized.
"And there are also separately Kyiv's loan (200 million dollars) and loans to the special budget fund for so-called development projects (today this is about 50 million dollars). If you take everything together, the amount of borrowings exceeds two and a half billion dollars!" Zhovtiak believes.
"Behind the zombifying talk about a balanced borrowing policy and hypnotic assurances of economic growth, in reality the Yanukovych-Azarov government is tightening the debt noose around the necks of future generations of Ukrainians," Zhovtiak noted.