DISINFO: Poroshenko’s government created huge debts to the IMF
SUMMARY
The government of the fifth president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, has increased debts to the International Monetary Fund as well as the national debt of the country. Poroshenko’s regime was criminal, and the new leadership of Ukraine will now have to repay huge debts that have arisen in the country since 2014.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative about Petro Poroshenko ruining Ukraine's economy. The national debt of Ukraine is indeed one of the main problems in the development of the country's economy. The Ukrainian government is currently mainly paying the debts of previous governments: Ukrainian prime ministers between 2007 and 2014 borrowed a total of 47 billion dollars. According to the Ukrainian government, the national debt of the country in 2014 was over 60 billion dollars. Under Poroshenko, from 2014 to 2017, the debt only increased by five billion dollars. Moreover, in 2019, Ukraine reduced the size of the national debt to below 60% of Ukraine’s gross domestic product. This happened for the first time since 2014. At the moment, Ukraine’s debt to creditors amounts to 79.82 billion dollars, of which 69.33 billion dollars is direct national debt, and the rest is a state-guaranteed debt on loans from public and private companies.