This year has been a difficult period of testing in the fight against a cruel enemy, however, despite all the difficulties, Ukraine has survived, become stronger, and created real preconditions for future victory, for restoration and post-war development.
This was stated by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmigal, summing up the results of the outgoing year, reports the Government Portal.
“At the beginning of 2023, we set clear goals and identified priorities in our work. Today we can record the results to understand how we are heading into 2024. The primary task for the government was, is and will be to provide for the Ukrainian army. In 11 months expenses of the general fund of the state budget for the security and defense sector amounted to UAH 1.5 trillion, weapons, ammunition, defense products and other support for our army,” Shmigal said.
He noted that over the past year we have significantly increased the production of our own weapons, equipment, ammunition, and drones. Now the defense industry employs more than 500 production facilities, and that is 300 thousand workers.
“The second key task for us this year was to maintain macroeconomic stability and support economic recovery. In January-November, GDP grew by 5.5%. Inflation has been steadily declining – from more than 26% last year to about 5% in November of this year “. months, more than 1 trillion UAH of taxes were accumulated in the state budget. This is 27% more than in the same period last year,” Shmihal emphasized.
He also recalled that under the non-repayable grant program, 5.5 billion UAH were issued. More than 10 thousand Ukrainians received funds. These are new businesses. These are tens of thousands of new jobs that are now appearing across the country. The state actively developed preferential lending programs for our entrepreneurs. Under the “Affordable Loans 5-7-9” program, almost UAH 90 billion of preferential loans were issued to 22 thousand businesses. Under another program, “State Guarantees on a Portfolio Basis,” more than UAH 37 billion were issued.
In addition, according to Shmygal, without waiting for the end of the war, the government began a program of rapid reconstruction and restoration of what was destroyed.
A year later, a legislative framework for effective recovery was created. It is based on the principle of “building back better than it was,” barrier-free, inclusive, and safe. From the Fund for Liquidating the Consequences of Armed Aggression, the government allocated about UAH 55 billion for various reconstruction projects.
“In total, more than 37 thousand objects were restored during the year. Almost 700 schools and kindergartens, more than 400 medical institutions. We launched the Restoration program. We pay our people up to 500 thousand hryvnia so that they can repair war-damaged housing. In total, already 28 thousand Ukrainian families received UAH 2.2 billion to restore their own homes,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
As Ukrinform reported, in 2024 all social payments will increase, in particular, the increase in pensions will affect more than half of Ukrainian pensioners, especially those receiving minimum payments.
