Economy review in July 2023. What should be funded with public money in war times aside from the military?

Since March 2022, the Centre for Economic Strategy (CES), together with the German Economic Team (GET), has been preparing monthly reviews of Ukraine’s economy during a full-scale war. All notes can be found under the link.

You can also access the visualization of monthly highlights through our regularly updated Ukraine War Economy Tracker.

Read in the July review:

• Macroeconomic trends: GDP growth and expectations, business activity, war damage;
  
• Industry overview: the state of energy, industry and the agricultural sector;
  
• Fiscal policy: state budget receipts and expenditures, international financial assistance, as well as the state of local budgets;
  
• Monetary and exchange rate policy: exchange rates, inflation and trends in the banking sector.

Special topic of the month: What should be funded with public money in war times aside from the military?

In July, the balance of funds in the local budgets reached UAH 170 billion. Given the difficulty of finding internal defence and security resources, these funds could be directed toward national expenditures.

At the event, with representatives of the central and local authorities, we considered how this resource could be used without harming the interests of communities and local governments and how public spending should be structured during a full-scale war.

Participants of the discussion:

• Yuriy Bova, mayor of Trostianets;
• Serhiy Kiral, Deputy mayor of Lviv;
• Kseniia Semenova, Deputy Head of the Commission on Digital Transformation and Administrative Services at Kyiv City Council;
• Volodymyr Tsabal, Secretary of the Committee on Budget of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.