Ukrainian parliament adopts 2008 budget.
28 December 2007
Published in AP
The Ukrainian Parliament approved next year's budget Friday - an ambitious plan submitted by the new Cabinet that also projects a bloated deficit.
The vote came 10 days after lawmakers named Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, the new prime minister by the narrowest possible margin. Her appointment followed months of tense coalition talks and reflected deep divisions in the former Soviet nation.
The Ukrainian Parliament approved next year's budget Friday - an ambitious plan submitted by the new Cabinet that also projects a bloated deficit.
The vote came 10 days after lawmakers named Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, the new prime minister by the narrowest possible margin. Her appointment followed months of tense coalition talks and reflected deep divisions in the former Soviet nation.
On Friday, the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada adopted the
draft budget by a 235-3 vote; lawmakers from Party of
Regions, led by former Prime Minister Viktor
Yanukovych, and its allies did not take part.
The deficit of 18.5 billion hryvnas (US$3.7 billion or ¤2.5 billion) comes on spending of 235.4 billion hryvnas (US$47 billion or ¤32 billion) and revenues of 215.4 billion hryvnas (US$43 billion or ¤30 billion). The deficit is equivalent to 2.1 percent of the nation's GDP; it is projected to increase by 18 percent over the current year.
The budget forecasts annual inflation of 9.6 percent and GDP growth of up to 6.8 percent.
In line with Tymoshenko's election promises, the budget envisages some compensation payments for those who lost their savings in the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Tymoshenko set adopting the budget by the year's end as her primary task. "Despite all the intrigues and confrontation, we now have the budget, and a very decent budget," she said after the vote.
Tymoshenko served as prime minister in 2005, but her Orange Revolution ally, President Viktor Yushchenko, fired her after seven months on the job, amid bitter recriminations.
The deficit of 18.5 billion hryvnas (US$3.7 billion or ¤2.5 billion) comes on spending of 235.4 billion hryvnas (US$47 billion or ¤32 billion) and revenues of 215.4 billion hryvnas (US$43 billion or ¤30 billion). The deficit is equivalent to 2.1 percent of the nation's GDP; it is projected to increase by 18 percent over the current year.
The budget forecasts annual inflation of 9.6 percent and GDP growth of up to 6.8 percent.
In line with Tymoshenko's election promises, the budget envisages some compensation payments for those who lost their savings in the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Tymoshenko set adopting the budget by the year's end as her primary task. "Despite all the intrigues and confrontation, we now have the budget, and a very decent budget," she said after the vote.
Tymoshenko served as prime minister in 2005, but her Orange Revolution ally, President Viktor Yushchenko, fired her after seven months on the job, amid bitter recriminations.