Meanwhile, as Greece struggles to unshackle itself from IMF aid, Ukraine puts on the yoke
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Sunday, August 9, 2026 14:18
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Ukraine Lawmakers Approve 2015 State Budget to Unlock Aid
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Ukraine’s lawmakers approved the 2015 state budget as the country seeks to unlock the next tranche of a $17 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund.
The budget was backed today by 233 lawmakers in the 450-seat Kiev-based legislature at 4:30 a.m. after debating tax-code changes and other issues since 10 a.m. yesterday. Supporters of the bill sang the national anthem and Cabinet members hugged one another after the legislation was approved.
“This budget, like other budgets adopted in this hall, is far from perfect,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said before the vote. “That’s why the budget must be reviewed no later than Feb. 15. We will amend it based on the result of talks with international financial organizations.”
The $17 billion bailout is already proving insufficient as Ukraine is grappling with its deepest recession since 2009 and its currency has plunged 48 percent against the dollar this year. The country’s credit rating was cut this month by Standard & Poor’s, which said a default could become inevitable as central bank reserves are melting and a bailout is being held up as fighting continues in the country’s east.
Ukraine needs $15 billion on top of the existing bailout, according to the European Union, to stay afloat as the bloodiest conflict since World War II ravages industry in the country’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The government estimates gross domestic product will contract 7 percent this year, while foreign reserves are below $10 billion -- the lowest in more than a decade.
IMF Mission
IMF is moving “expeditiously” to continue discussion with the government on a reform program to stabilize the economy and restore sustainable growth, the fund’s representative office in Kiev said today by email. The IMF mission will work in Kiev beginning Jan. 8 until before the end of the month.
An IMF mission will return early next year to discuss financial aid should parliament approve the budget, Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said Dec. 26. The budget is aimed at stabilizing state finances, which will help stabilize the hryvnia rate, she said.
The budget envisages an increase of defense spending to 5.2 percent of GDP, Jaresko said. It cuts social spending to keep the budget deficit in check, while doubling duties to 10 percent on imports that are not “essential.”
The government sees the budget deficit, excluding funds needed for state-run energy company NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, at 3.7 percent of GDP. Yatsenyuk said the government spent 110 billion hryvnia ($7 billion) this year on Naftogaz and plans to cut subsidies to 32 billion hryvnia in 2015.
Yatsenyuk said the subsidy will be lifted if the price of natural gas for households is increased to “market levels.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-29/ukraine-parliament-approves-2
015-state-budget-to-unlock-imf-aid.html
WHAT I PREDICTED
Quote:Gas not cut off, but austerity definitely in the cards. Another part of my prediction:
KIEV ANNOUNCES AUSTERITY
Because of the cutoff of natural gas deliveries and the subsequent price hike, the transitional Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatseniuk, has announced that natural gas subsidies would be cut back significantly. The IMF has insisted, as it has done with most of its governmental loans, that subsidies be cut in order to shore up governmental finances. Yatseniuk, himself a banker and favored by the United States to head the transitional government, has full authority to obtain loans and sign international agreements, according to the EU and the USA.
Quote:
MAIDAN SQUARE ERUPTS AGAIN
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=51008&p=5
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And in addition, some EU members are experiencing "buyer's remorse" with Ukraine
The President of Austria called stupid new sanctions against Russia .... and admitted that Ukraine was more of a fixer-upper than anticipated and will require the combined efforts of the EU AND Russia to solve...
Quote:
The European Union, according to the President of Austria, had overestimated the attractiveness of the offer on Association with Ukraine. According to Fischer, it was necessary to allow Kyiv to build partnership relations with both Europe and Russia. "Only at the last moment it became clear that Ukraine will become a call between the EU proposal and the multi-billion dollar offer from (Russian President) Vladimir Putin," said Fischer
http://newstwenty4seven.com/en/news/prezident-avstrii-nazval-glupostju
-novye-sanktsii-protiv-rossii
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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.
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Other way around moron. Remember the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003? It was due to the same reasons (corruption)that set up the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine in 2004. Corruption and a lack of ties to the rest of Europe that offered better economic possibilities. Due to Russia's attempts at blocking that; then and still to this day, the struggle continues.
Try as hard as you like, even here you cannot rewrite history.
"The susceptibility of Shevardnadze's government and his plummeting popularity between 2000-2003 can partially be traced to economic problems and mismanagement. Beginning in 1998, actual national budget revenues began to fall far short of projections. In 1999, the Georgian state collected only 70% of its projected revenue, a state of affairs that would continue through 2003. To address this problem, the government began to use deceptive accounting techniques to mask budget deficiencies. Shevardnadze's government found itself both starved of funds and unable to meet IMF standards for international loans. The IMF finally suspended its own funding for Georgia in 2002. Without access to international loans, Georgia would not be able to restructure or repay its significant debts".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Revolution
"The Orange Revolution, Ukrainian; was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter intimidation and direct electoral fraud. Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, was the focal point of the movement's campaign of civil resistance, with thousands of protesters demonstrating daily.[5] Nationwide, the democratic revolution was highlighted by a series of acts of civil disobedience, sit-ins, and general strikes organized by the opposition movement".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Revolution
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Signy, I don't think there was a single commentator who predicted that Ukraine would NOT face austerity, or that the Ukrainian population would like it.
It's not personal. It's just war.
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People said that throwing off the old elected president and embracing the US-Germany approved coup, and facing west to the EU would be an improvement. So far, the exact opposite has happened.
SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.
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Gee, I wonder why that is 1kiki? Ass.... do you think it might have something to do with Russia sending in tanks to both Georgia and the Ukraine?
You are an absolute joke. 
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Do you care that Eastern Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom? Or that Kiev is waging illegal actions against those civilians?
Or are you so focused on - yanno - Russia, that you can't even begin to cognate that Russia isn't in this battle?
SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.
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I think the Russian migrants to Eastern Ukraine are fighting to annex or steal that half of the country at the behest of Putin. Pretty much what everyone else believes. At least those who are not considered Bolsheviks.
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So, very generally Signy, I've come to a change of ideas. I used to think that national cohesion was a worthy goal. But as I started to think about it more, I started to wonder - why? If people aren't in the same country of their own free will, then they're in it by applied force. And just on general terms, it's hard to argue you're for freedom and democracy if you're not willing to abide by either.
SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.
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Russian migrants? percent population? percent freedom fighters? and of course, cites?
Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
I think the Russian migrants to Eastern Ukraine are fighting to annex or steal that half of the country at the behest of Putin. Pretty much what everyone else believes. At least those who are not considered Bolsheviks.
SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.
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