BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union countries on Tuesday approved new aid to Ukraine as the country faces an economic surge due to the Russian invasion.
On Tuesday, finance ministers from the 27 EU countries welcomed 1 billion euros ($1 billion) in loans to the Ukrainian government.
This brings the total amount of the EU to 2. 2 billion euros. macro-monetary assistance in Kyiv this year. An initial amount of €1. 2 billion from the EU. The loan package won green approval from the bloc’s top financial officials days before Russia’s large-scale attack on Feb. 24.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, submitted up to 9 billion euros in additional aid to Ukraine in mid-May. The planned payment of €1 billion is a component of this initiative, which comes as Russia moves into eastern Ukraine and losses pile up. on both sides.
“This will give Ukraine the budget to cover pressing wishes and ensure the functioning of critical infrastructure,” Zbynek Stanjura, the Czech Republic’s finance minister, who has recently held the EU’s rotating presidency, said in a statement.
Ukraine said last week that its postwar reconstruction would cost $750 billion. Meanwhile, the Kyiv government is estimated to want about 5 billion euros a month to keep the economy afloat.
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The Group of Seven countries, in addition to the United States, have pledged to ukraine fulfilling its wishes for short-term financing, in addition to offering military aid to Kyiv and applying far-reaching economic sanctions against Russia.
The five-month war is having economic and social repercussions around the world, ranging from an imaginable food shortage in Africa to disruptions in the EU’s energy source. This, in turn, increases the threat of a global recession.
The United States is expected to cut its forecast for economic expansion across the bloc in 2022 for the third time this year on Thursday.
In May, the European Commission planned for the EU’s gross domestic product to grow by 2. 7% in 2022, lowering the forecast made in February for a 4% expansion. February’s outlook is weaker than November’s projection of 4. 3% from the EU’s GDP expansion this year.
Over the past two months, Russia has halted or reduced deliveries of herbal fuel to more than 10 EU countries and inflation in Europe has continued to rise. In June, inflation in the 19 countries that share the euro hit an all-time high of 8. 6%.