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Kiev deliberately racks up debt hoping the West will write it off — expert

Ukraine’s State Statistics Service has reported that the country's aggregate government debt rose to $76.56 billion in August

© Alexandr Demyanchuk/TASS

KIEV, October 2. /TASS/. Ukraine is deliberately building up its government debt, raising new borrowings from external creditors, Ukrainian economist and ex-Economy Minister Viktor Suslov told TASS on Monday.

The Ukrainian economist thus commented on the data of the country’s State Statistics Service on the growth of the government debt.

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"Ukraine is conducting completely deliberate policy of building up external debt. This is old policy and there is absolutely nothing new in it. It is obvious that the debs will continue growing," the expert said.

According to the ex-economy minister, the Ukrainian leadership somehow hopes that the West "will appreciate Ukraine’s role in geopolitics and the debts will be largely written off some day."

As of today, "the factor of the growth of borrowings is the factor of the government debt’s increase," the expert said.

"For example, the Ukrainian government floated bonds worth $3 billion on international financial markets quite recently and, correspondingly, the government debt increased," he noted.

Earlier, the government debt growth was also driven by other factors, including loans from the International Monetary Fund, the expert said.

Ukraine’s State Statistics Service has reported that Ukraine’s aggregate government (direct and guaranteed) debt rose to $76.56 billion in August. Ukraine’s direct government debt amounted to 1,661.67 billion hryvnia ($64.96 billion) as of late August from 1,659.69 billion hryvnia ($64.04 billion) in late July.

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