The Verkhovna Rada passed bill No. 7000 on the state budget of Ukraine for 2018 on December 8, 2017, with 273 votes.
On December 20, the parliament voted down draft resolution No. 7000-P proposing to scrap the bill on the state budget for 2018.
On December 21, lawmakers removed inconsistencies in the text of the adopted bill on ensuring the balance of budget revenues in 2018 in terms of payments of one-time cash assistance to military upon their dismissal from service.
The state budget for 2018 is based on the forecast of GDP growth of 3% with inflation of 9%, as well as on the hryvnia exchange rate of UAH 30.1/$1.
A document with revenues of UAH 913.6 billion and expenditures of UAH 988.6, which is 18.4% and 17.5% respectively higher than in the 2017 state budget, was put to the vote. The revenues to the general fund are to be increased by 19.6% to UAH 839.8 billion, the expenses by 18.1%, to UAH 906.7 billion.
The ceiling for the state budget deficit is set at UAH 81.8 billion, which is only 5.4% higher than in the state budget for 2017. The deficit of the general fund is to shrink by 1% to UAH 61.7 billion compared to this year.
Taking into account upgrading the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for next year by the government for the bill's second reading, from UAH 3.25 trillion to UAH 3.33 trillion, the deficit will make 2.46% of GDP, which meets the requirements of the program of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.
The minimum wage in Ukraine is to grow from January 1, 2018, by 16.3% to UAH 3,723 per month, and the government has been also instructed to study the possibility of increasing it after the first quarter of next year.
The subsistence minimum is set at UAH 1,700 UAH from January 1, 2018, UAH 1,777 UAH from July 1, and UAH 1,853 from December 1.
