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Ukraine may double defence budget if economy strengthens: PM

Xinhua, April 14, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Ukrainian government may double the country's defence budget if the economy strengthens further, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said here on Friday.

Ukraine's defence spending may rise to 9.6 billion U.S. dollars per year when the country achieves a sustainable economic growth, Groysman told the parliament.

After two decades of keeping its defense expenditures at below 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), Ukraine started to gradually boost its defense budget in 2014, when the conflict between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents started in eastern regions.

While in 2013 the country's defense budget stood at 1.11 percent of the GDP, in 2016 it has reached 5 percent of the GDP.

The Ukrainian government has estimated that the country's spending on defense will stand at about 4.8 billion dollars or 5 percent of the GDP this year.

The Ukrainian economy grew by 2.3 percent in 2016 compared with a consolidated decline of 16.5 percent over the previous two years. Enditem