You're reading: Yanukovych notes reduction in Ukraine’s foreign debt

Ukraine's foreign debt is falling, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said.

"Last year we returned about Hr 80 billion from the budget, and the year before, in 2010, the figure was about Hr 90 billion. The load for this year is falling, and we will return a little more than Hr 60 billion. This means that the amount of the debt to be returned is falling," he said at a meeting with representatives of religious organizations in Kyiv on Wednesday.

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that the head of state devoted a large part of his conversation with religious leaders to economic issues. In particular, he noted that after the first quarter of the year, the state budget for 2012 would be revised upward and that it was planned to equalize the level of the living wage and the level of minimum pensions and the minimum wage, after which "there will be an increase."

Yanukovych said that the state budget would be increased at the expense of economic growth, in particular, due to an increase in production and foreign trade.