During the Regional Development Council, President Petro Poroshenko stressed that for the first time, the share of local budgets in the consolidated budget of Ukraine exceeded 50%, and local budget revenues grew from UAH 69 billion to UAH 231 billion in four years. According to him, the share of own revenues of local budgets in GDP has increased from 5% to more than 7%, and the amount of state support for hromada development and infrastructure development has received 39-fold increase over four years.

"There is another problem. Billions of local budget hryvnias are kept on deposits. My friends, I will contact the banking institutions and ask them to make this information public in the context of each hromada. If hromada leaders do not need the funds, say it! This is approximately the sum our army needs to transform our inherited ammunition dumps into modern warehouses with reliable and high-tech security systems that completely exclude the influence of human factor and sabotage," the President said.

"Only receiving interest on deposits is not enough. Money should be invested in the implementation of important local projects, work for the hromadas, generate new jobs, improve the lives of hromada residents,” the President noted.

The President stressed that, according to the forecasts, in the coming years the growth will continue in Ukraine. "If we rebuff populists during the elections, if we do not allow them to nullify the macroeconomic stabilisation built by society, decentralisation will bring more funds," he said.

The President also said that yesterday he had a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of France Emmanuel Macron. They discussed the issues of decentralisation and readiness to increase the volume of advisory assistance to Ukraine. "If any local head needs consultations on how to use the hromada funds, we can give access to the best foreign practices," the Head of State said.