Ukrainian national debt rises to almost 80% of GDP

The war-related economic slump and new loans caused Ukraine's national debt to rise to almost 80% of economic output last year.
Specifically, state debt, as well as debt guaranteed by the state, rose from 48.9% in pre-war 2021 to 78.5%, the Finance Ministry in Kiev announced on Twitter on Thursday.
Direct state debt at home and abroad had only risen from $86.6 billion to $101.6 billion, it added.
At the same time, however, the Ukrainian economy suffered a massive slump after the full-scale Russian invasion last year.
The economic output of the invaded Eastern European country has now been estimated by the ministry at the equivalent of around $161 billion for the whole of 2022, which is roughly comparable to just the German city of Hamburg.
In the European Union, according to the so-called Maastricht criteria, a public debt level of no more than 60% of gross domestic product (GDP) is considered sound.
Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion for almost 14 months with massive Western aid.
Including the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in an initial invasion in 2014, almost 20% of Ukrainian territory is currently occupied by Russian troops.