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Ukraine’s 2016 budget to focus on national security, defense — premier

According to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the reason is that the war is far from its completion, judging by the latest reports

Ukraine's PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk Maxim Nikitin/TASS

Ukraine's PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk

© Maxim Nikitin/TASS

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Ukraine parliament to consider bill on increased financing of defense sector — president

KIEV, November 19. /TASS/. Ukraine’s budget for next year will focus on national security and defense, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in an interview with Focus magazine on Thursday.

"National security and defense undoubtedly constitute the basis of the budget. As was stated, we’ll allocate 100 billion hryvnia [$4.2 billion] for these purposes. This is because the war is far from its completion, judging by the latest reports. Also, we should keep the budget deficit at 3.7% as was agreed with the IMF," the premier said.

Tax reform in Ukraine will require state budget cuts by more than 60 billion hryvnia ($2.5 billion), Yatsenyuk said.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko earlier said "difficult decisions" were required to cut 2016 budget expenditures by at least 60 billion hryvnia or possibly by 200 billion hryvnia ($8.7 billion), i.e. by 25% The Ukrainian finance minister also proposed cutting budget expenditures at the expense of health care and education.

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Ukraine crisis Ukraine Economy Arseniy Yatsenyuk

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