The issue of implementation of the areas of fiscal consolidation is particularly relevant in terms of the accumulation of public deficits and public debt in such amounts when the country is on the verge of insolvency. A clear policy to gradually reduce these deficits is necessary, since the budget deficit and quasi-fiscal deficits are rapidly increasing. This will help stabilizing public debt dynamics, and facilitating resolving the shortterm financial difficulties. The situation in Ukraine is complicated by the very low possibility to eliminate external shocks, since foreign exchange reserves and financial reserves are at their minimum, and continuing to show a downward trend. In addition, Ukraine’s economy is experiencing a phase of economic recession. Although the causes of these adverse events are complex and represent a number of external and internal factors, a path to immediate macroeconomic stabilization in Ukraine is possible. Reducing these macroeconomic imbalances should be the main task for the government in the near future, because otherwise there is no real opportunity to achieve sustainable economic growth. Further structural fiscal reforms in public spending are mandatory to maintain macroeconomic stability and economic development in the medium term. Fiscal consolidation will reduce external imbalances, help restoring fiscal space lost due to the crisis, and reduce the financial needs of the state budget and premium for sovereign risk. There are good reasons to conduct fiscal consolidation measures largely by public spending because their level relative to GDP is very high. Furthermore, it is the running costs should be subject to consolidation as capital expenditures have been already reduced to historically low levels. It is proven that there are very limited opportunities for consolidation on the basis of public revenues, because the concentration of GDP in the budget is already high and it would be difficult to raise revenues substantially without compromising growth prospects. The possibility of using the mechanisms fiscal consolidation in Ukraine and foreign countries, their characteristics and problems are defined. In this respect, special attention is paid to the nature of fiscal consolidation and its types, characteristics of fiscal consolidation measures in a crisis, measures of active debt policy as part of financial stability and opportunities to stabilize Ukraine’s public finances in the medium term.
Keywords: fiscal consolidation, fiscal space, financial crisis, debt policy, budget deficit.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17721/1728-2667.2015/167-2/9
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