Ukraine may initiate negotiations on restructuring its foreign state debts, particularly the Eurobond debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Finance Minister Oleksandr Shlapak said.
“Nobody is raising the issue of debt restructuring at the start of
negotiations. No doubt, we will be sending such proposals to our
partners,” Shlapak said at a news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Ukraine is supposed to pay about $10 billion on its debts by the end of 2014, Shlapak said.
“Payments are being made every day, but the peaks fall on May, June,
and August. This is the money we owe to the IMF on Eurobonds. The
largest sum is bonds that the government issued in foreign currency.
Another large sum is loans from the World Bank and other creditors,” he
said.
Ukraine’s aggregate state (plain) and government-backed debt amounted
to $73.23 billion as of the end of Jan., 2014, including $60.08
billion in plain debt. The country’s aggregate foreign debt amounted to
$37.57 billion, including plain foreign debt $27.93 billion, as of the
end of February. Ukraine’s international reserves are currently equal to
about $15 billion.
