DrAmericans complain that other industrialized countries do not have sufficient financial commitments to Ukraine. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appealed to her colleagues at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington that „the proportion of direct grants should increase.” Since the beginning of the war, the United States has been by far the largest donor to the country attacked by Russia. Many other countries, including those in the European Union, have only been prepared so far credits admits. Unlike grants, these grants must be repaid by Ukraine at some point.
In recent months, there have been frequent disagreements among donor countries over who will support Ukraine, how quickly and in what form. There is a basic need for short-term liquidity support to maintain the state apparatus, for example to pay pensions and wages to state employees.
In order to better coordinate payments next year, Ukrainian Head of State Volodymyr Zelensky has now proposed a new format in which this should be discussed. “It would be good to create a permanent working group that will provide financial support to Ukraine and work at different levels in a timely manner,” Zelensky said. The Ukrainian president was linked to the annual conference via video link.
The format should be based on the so-called Ukrainian Contact Group, which is mainly used to coordinate arms shipments to the Ukrainian armed forces. This collection was launched by USA in the spring. The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, assured Silinsky that such a group. „Yes, we do,” she said. One wants to prepare such a look as soon as possible.
Georgieva estimated the liquidity needs of Ukraine in the coming year at three to four billion dollars per month, that is, up to 50 billion dollars annually. This excludes the much higher estimated costs of rebuilding the country. For the current year, there are commitments to grants and loans totaling $35 billion. The amount is considered sufficient. „The IMF assumes that this will fill any fiscal gaps that will arise in 2022,” Georgieva said.
The government representatives meeting in Washington left no doubt about their primary willingness to support Ukraine not only militarily but also financially in the coming year. „With the international community and in close cooperation with the Ukrainian government, we will remain committed to supporting Ukraine in the coming months and years,” G7 finance ministers said on the sidelines of the fall meeting.
However, it is still not clear which country will help next year. “It is now a question of putting that into a long-term perspective, i.e. putting Ukrainian state funding on a safe footing for the next year,” Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) said. This is now being systematically worked on.
A consistent distribution key must be found to avoid difficult discussions about the amount and type of assistance, whether in the form of grants or loans, as has been the case this year.
Lindner had to test the difficulty of such talks at the G7 summit he organized in May in Petersburg, near Bonn. There is a failure to organize previously targeted grants of $15 billion among the leading industrialized nations. At the time, while the United States and Germany were ready to provide grants, the other five countries – France, Britain, Italy, Japan and Canada – were only willing to offer loans and guarantees.
So far, $1.4 billion has come from Germany
Although Germany, with a total of $1.4 billion in financial aid according to the Federal Ministry of Finance, is the largest donor within the EU, there has always been criticism of the EU in particular. According to the widely popular „Ukrainian Support Tracker” of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the United States made new commitments – not just financial ones – of nearly $12 billion between the beginning of August and the beginning of October, bringing the total to $52 billion in military and financial aid. and humanity. During the same period, European countries and EU institutions increased their commitments by only about $1.4 billion, for a total of just under $29 billion.
The big European countries paint a bad picture here, especially since many of the commitments they made arrive in Ukraine after a very long delay. “The low volume of new commitments in the summer now appears to be continuing systematically,” said Christoph Trebisch, head of the team creating the Ukraine Support Tracker. The US government has so far been a more reliable partner for Ukraine than the largest of the European Union.
„All in Stock” is the daily stock exchange snapshot from the WELT Business Editorial Team. Every morning from 7 am with our financial journalists. For stock market experts and beginners. Subscribe to the podcast at spotifyAnd the Apple PodcastAnd the amazon music And the Deezer. or directly via rss feed.
