Ukraine has pushed about Hr.39 billion ($876 million) of spending to the end of the year and left a further Hr.46 billion ($1.03 billion) in payments unprocessed on the Single Treasury Account, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told the Verkhovna Rada on Monday.
The unprocessed payments cover road repairs, the upkeep and development of administrative service centers, repairs of penal institutions, school bus purchases, current and capital repairs of housing, preparations for the heating season and the purchase of backup power, Marchenko told lawmakers.
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The government entered October in a liquidity crisis, Marchenko told lawmakers. Only defense spending, pensions, salaries and social benefits are being financed. Other expenditures have been either prioritized or put on hold until the Single Treasury Account recovers.
“… approximately Hr.39 billion pushed at the end of the year. In addition, as of today, there are Hr.46 billion in the state treasury allocated to the Unified State Budget, of which funds are earmarked for road repairs, the maintenance and development of administrative centers, the renovation of correctional facilities, the purchase of school buses, routine and major repairs to the housing stock, preparations for the heating season, and the purchase of backup power supplies,” Interfax-Ukraine quoted the finance minister.
He added that the government has also suspended Hr.18 billion hryvnias ($404 million) in budget refunds of value-added tax (VAT) to taxpayers. Together, the three categories he named amount to Hr.103 billion ($2.3 billion).
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A VAT refund is the money the state returns to a registered business when the tax it paid on its purchases exceeds the tax it owes on its sales.
On Sept. 15, the government submitted a 2027 budget of about $162 billion, but Marchenko warned that Ukraine will run short of cash before the end of 2026.
The government had already adopted a decision allowing the Treasury to limit the opening of appropriations for non-priority expenditures starting in October if the Single Treasury Account lacks sufficient resources to make all planned payments. The decision remains in effect until the end of the year, according to the government’s website.
Marchenko stressed that the government is seeking domestic resourc es and has stepped up the work of a task force to reduce the shadow economy. According to him, the group will prepare proposals to prevent the artificial splitting of businesses, counter illegal production and sales of tobacco products, and bring the labor market out of the shadows.
The International Monetary Fund kept its forecast for Ukraine’s real GDP growth at 1.0 percent in 2026, with a pickup to 3.5 percent in 2027, in its October World Economic Outlook.
Olena Hrazhdan is the Business Reporter at Kyiv Post, covering Ukraine’s markets, business, and economic policy. While she reports broadly on economic issues, her core focus is banking, finance, monetary and fiscal policy. Olena previously wrote for leading Ukrainian business media and became a Fellow of the International Monetary Fund’s Journalism Fellowship in 2024.