European Union Offer $15 billion in Aid to Ukraine

March 5, 2014 Share Print 0

The European Union announced Wednesday it will offer Ukraine at least $15 billion (€11 billion) in aid as the country struggles with dwindling cash and a military standoff with Russia.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said the package would provide Ukraine with assistance over the next few years. The aim is to help the country stabilize its economy and finances and work toward political and economic reforms.

Experts have been predicting Ukraine could default this month on its billions of dollars in debts. The country owes roughly $13 billion in debt this year.
Many of the country’s debts are denominated in U.S. dollars, which were becoming increasingly difficult to pay back as the value of the country’s currency fell sharply this year.
On Wednesday, Ukraine said it would not be able to pay its February natural gas bill to the energy company Gazprom. Ukraine owes the Russian firm nearly $2 billion.

via CNN

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.