Poroshenko: Ukraine to spend 5.26% of GDP on defense this year

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says that Ukraine will spend 5.26% of GDP on defense this year.

Last year the requirement of the country's Military Strategy and the Law on the National Security to keep the expenditures on the defense and security sector at the level of at least 5% of GDP was fulfilled, he said. "In fact, this year they will account for 5.36% of GDP [both on defense and security]," the president said at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council in Kyiv on Thursday, which addressed a military budget issue.

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"I know that's difficult ... This is the responsible position of our law enforcement agencies, we need more money, but I hope that the level of funding this year will be in percentages no less than the level of last year's funding," he said.

The president noted that the situation with regard to the formation of the military budget is not easy. "I can say we have already seen the first sprouts of reforms adopted in the past four years, and this gives us an opportunity to look optimistically at the relevant budget process, although it will be very hard, and I hope for proper indicators for financing the defense and security sectors," he added.

For comparison, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) whose membership Ukraine has been seeking said early in July 2018 its European members would spend an average 1.5% of economic output on defense this year.

America's NATO partners will expand military outlays by a combined 3.8% in 2018, bringing the cumulative rise since the start of 2015 to more than $87 billion, according to the alliance, Bloomberg reported.

Ukraine's GDP (at official exchange rates) in 2017 was estimated at US$109.3 billion, according to the CIA's website. Ukraine's National Bank of Ukraine forecasts a 3.4% increase in GDP in 2018.