National Bank of Ukraine / Photo from UNIAN
Smolii strongly opposes the idea of "turning on a printing press," noting that the vaccine must not be worse than the disease.
National Bank Governor Yakiv Smolii has warned Ukrainian authorities against pursuing the option of financing of part of government spending through uncontrolled hryvnia print.
"Of course, just like the rest of the countries, Ukraine requires large-scale expenses on fighting the coronavirus and ensuring economic support. However, the vaccine must not be worse than the disease," Smolii told a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax, and Customs Policy on Friday.
He has called on members of parliament, committee members, to "recall Ukrainian history".
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"Uncontrolled money printing to finance government spending has always entailed disastrous consequences for the economy. Of course, you can make everyone millionaires, but these millions will cost nothing," the central bank chief stressed.
Ukraine now needs to complete negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, as well as get cheap loans from other financial institutions.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada introduced "anti-crisis" changes to the state budget for 2020, almost tripling its deficit to UAH 298.4 billion.