KIEV, September 16. /TASS/. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told cabinet colleagues on Wednesday that wage payment arrears stood at "a small" 53.4 million hryvnias ($2.4 million) — 36 times less than the sum announced by Social Policy Minister Pavel Rozenko in August.
"There are wage arrears, and these are debts not of the state budget but of the local budget. The debt owed to people is estimated at 53.4 million hryvnias, this is a small debt," Yatsenyuk told ministers.
Social Policy Minister Rozenko said last month that wage debt owed to Ukrainians was 1.9 billion hryvnias ($86.7 million). Arrears had grown by almost 50% over the past seven months, he said.