Government employees in Ukraine are struggling to get salaries and pensions. Ukraine's Economy Minister Yulia Svyridenko said that if the United States and the European Union do not resume their financial assistance soon, these payments should be temporarily suspended. Information from Financial Times. “The support of our partners is very important,” he said. “We need you urgently.”
The suspension of payments will affect 500,000 civil servants, 1.4 million teachers and 10 million pensioners. Kiev needs at least 37 billion dollars from abroad next year. In the US, Congress blocked a $60 billion funding package; In the EU, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is blocking a bailout of 50 billion euros over the next four years.
Sviridenko expressed hope that the EU funds would be approved in February and disbursed in March. But this is not enough. The government has tried to boost its own revenue by, among other things, raising the profit tax for banks to 50 percent. Kiev will primarily finance the military and debt service. Hence, there was a risk of disruption in the social sector.
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