Ukrainian Parliament Approves Budget for 2020

The Ukrainian parliament has approved the government's budget for 2020. 280 MPs voted in favor of this bill.

The budget for 2020 is based on the exchange rate of 27.5 hryvnia per dollar. Budget revenues are set to amount to 1,090 billion hryvnia, and expenses - 1,180 billion hryvnia.

The minimum wage will increase to 4,723 hryvnia per month, the cost of living - up to 2,102 hryvnia per month (it will increase both on July 1 and December 1). The budget deficit will be about 2.09% of GDP.

In 2020, 423.6 billion hryvnia will be spent on debt payments, of which 141.5 billion hryvnia will be interest on state borrowings. National debt itself in 2020 will be about 45.3% of GDP.

Next year, for the first time, the government will allocate 3.8 billion hryvnia for the social protection of teachers: in 2020, young teachers are planning to pay a lump-sum allowance of 21,000 hryvnia. 500 million hryvnia the government has provided for the introduction in Ukraine of exchange programs for young people. These programs in 2020 should cover around 100,000 Ukrainians.

For the first time Ukraine will allocate financial aid to single pensioners who are over 80 years old. 860 million hryvnia have been set aside for this purpose. These people will receive an additional 670 hryvnia to their pensions. For the health treatment of Ukrainians abroad – in particular, the implementation of organ transplantation operations – the expenses in the 2020 budget will exceed 1 billion hryvnia.

In 2020, the government plans to spend 73.7 billion hryvnia on infrastructure. 1 billion hryvnia is allocated for the reconstruction of the airport in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised during his October 10 press marathon.

Defense spending remained at 5.45% of GDP.

Compared to the 2019 budget, there are some changes:

• 14.4 billion hryvnia more will be spent on salaries of servicemen;

• expenses for medicines will increase to 657.8 million hryvnia, and for food supply - by 248.1 million hryvnia;

•  7.8 billion hryvnia more is planned to be spent on the purchase and modernization of weapons.

• costs allocated to housing for military personnel and social benefits in the event of disability or death will also increase

At the same time, there is no separate expenditure item for Zelenskyy government's “state in a smartphone” project.

READ MORE: The Zelenskyy Government Priorities: Debts and Defense