Respective bill No. 5000 was posted on the parliament’s website. At the same time, there is neither text of the document nor addenda available on the website. In keeping with the budget resolution for 2017, the Ukrainian government plans to set the minimum wages at the same level as the subsistence rate.
The 2016 national budget stipulates that social standards will be raised from December 1, 2016, namely pensions and wages will grow by 10%. The minimum wages and the subsistence rate for the working population in Ukraine from May 1, grew to 1,450 UAH from 1,378 UAH per month per capita.
The minimum pension was 1,130 UAH per capita, as was stipulated in the 2016 national budget. In general, social standards grew by 6% in 2016. The Cabinet in June approved the draft budget resolution, which foresaw 3-4% GDP growth in 2017 amid 8.1% inflation and 8.6% unemployment. The state debt is projected at 66.8% of GDP next year, the forex rate is expected at 27.2 UAH per U.S. dollar.
Late in August, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman named the priorities for funding from the national budget. They are the defense sector and security (at least 5% of GDP) amid ongoing military aggression by Russia. Other priorities are the development of infrastructure, the launch of the Road Fund, which will include funds from international financial organizations and about 14 billion UAH from the national budget, the launch of the Energy Efficient Fund, support of small-sized farms (5.5 billion UAH).
The Ukrainian government also plans to develop trade missions abroad to promote Ukrainian exports and conduct large-scale privatization by selling stakes in more than 300 enterprises, including such giants at Turboatom and Electrotyazhmash, and the State Food and Grain Corporation. September 15, was set by the budget resolution as the deadline for the submission of the draft budget for 2017 in parliament. (UNIAN/Business World Magazine)
