Effect of Ukraine’s public debt management on its macroeconomic development: VAR modeling

Abstract

One of the tools of economic policy of any country is efficient public debt management, which influences and determines the dynamics of key macroeconomic indicators. The study aims to assess how public debt management affects Ukraine’s macroeconomic development. The analyzed period includes data of 2015–2021. Econometric modeling is used to establish the existence of causal relationships between the dynamics of public debt and changes in key macroeconomic indicators using the Granger causality test and VAR (Vector Autoregression) model. The obtained results demonstrate that during the study period, the strongest links existed between the public debt and GDP, debt servicing and Ukraine’s total state budget expenditures, public debt and consumer price index, real effective exchange rate index of the hryvnia to the US dollar, and political stability index. At the same time, the calculations proved that public debt does not have a significant impact on foreign direct investment and the level of imports of goods and services. The proposed model allows for forecasts for future periods and can be used in developing public debt management policy.