KIEV: The Ukrainian external debt rose to 110.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of the first quarter of this year from 95.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, the country’s central bank announced here the other day.
As of April 1, the Ukrainian external debt, a sum of money borrowed overseas by the government and the private sector, reached 126 billion U.S. dollars, the Ukrainian National Bank (NBU) said in a statement.
Ukraine’s debt-GDP ratio has increased in the first quarter as the country has obtained new loans nominated in foreign currency, while its local currency has depreciated and economy saw a drastic decrease, the statement said.
In January through March 2015, Ukraine has received 5.4 billion dollars from its foreign lenders, of which 4.9 billion came from the International Monetary Fund, it said.
Ukraine, whose GDP fell 17.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015, is now in talks with its private foreign lenders over restructuring of about 15 billion dollars of the state debt.
