Ukraine reduces foreign debt despite new loans: PM

Ukraine's government has managed to reduce the country's foreign debt by 10 percent, or 7 billion U.S. dollars since it came to power last February, despite taking out new loans, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Friday.

"When we came to power, our debt was 73 billion dollars and now it is 66 billion dollars. That is our answer to opponents who criticize us for taking out loans and increasing the debt," Yatsenyuk told the parliament.

He explained that the Ukrainian government was able to ease the country's debt burden through the restructuring of 15 billion dollars of Kiev's arrears to foreign private lenders.

The 20-percent credit write-off and a four-year freeze of payments, obtained under the restructuring, would allow the government to further reduce expenditures, he said, adding that the measures will save the country about 430 million dollars next year.

In 2014, Ukraine's external debt fell by 4.5 percent to about 69.8 billion dollars, or 70.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), far more than a targeted debt-GDP ratio of 60 percent.

This year, Ukraine has received about 9.7 billion dollars as loans from international creditors to boost the country's foreign exchange reserves and carry out economic reforms. Endi