IMF predicts increase in Ukraine's national debt to 88.1% of GDP this year

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts an increase in the total public debt of war-torn Ukraine this year to 88.1% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

This is said in the Financial Monitor report, presented on Wednesday in Marrakesh by Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the IMF, Vitor Gaspar, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the report, the total national debt of Ukraine in 2021 - before Russia’s full-scale invasion - was 48.9% of the national GDP. In 2022, this indicator increased to 78.5%. By the end of the current year, it is expected to grow to 88.1%.

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At the same time, the IMF predicts that the total public debt of Ukraine will grow to 98.6% next year and will reach a peak value of 100.7% in 2025, after which it is expected to gradually decrease.

As reported by Ukrinform, according to the IMF’s latest edition of the World Economic Outlook (WEO), presented on Tuesday, Ukraine’s GDP is expected to grow by 2% by the end of 2023, which is significantly different from the Fund's April outlook, which suggested negative dynamics at the level of -3% for the war-torn country.