ASSESSMENT OF BUDGET SECURITY OF UKRAINE AND BUDGET POLICY MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN IT

Abstract

Introduction. In modern conditions, the budget system is the institutional environment that affects all aspects of the functioning of the state and determines the economic security of the state. An effective system of budgetary security is able to ensure such a state of ensuring the solvency and financial stability of state finances that enables state authorities to perform their assigned functions as efficiently as possible. Instead, the problems of the budget process, budget imbalances create destructive consequences for the socio-economic development of the state. Purpose. The purpose of the article is to analyze the state of budget security as a component of Ukraine's financial security and to find ways to strengthen it by means of budget policy. Methods. To achieve the goal of the article, general scientific methods of scientific knowledge were used, namely: dialectical approach - during the study of interrelationships and interdependence of phenomena and processes, induction - during the decomposition of elements of the system of economic and financial security, synthesis - during the determination of the relationship of indicators of the budget security and tabular method. – for visual presentation of digital information and obtained results. Results. Financial security is one of the main components of the economic security of the state. The high importance of financial security is indicated by the weighting factor of 0.1294, which is the highest indicator in the structure of economic security of Ukraine. Being one of the subsystems of economic security, financial security has 6 lower-order systems in its composition, among which budgetary security occupies a prominent place. Despite the greatest importance of budgetary security (0.2023) in the structure of financial security, only four indicators are quantitatively allocated to it, which is the smallest value. The analyzed indicators proved that almost all indicators in 2017-2021 were not within optimal limits. Moreover, the level of budget security of Ukraine is in a state of critical sustainability of public finances, in which Ukraine has a long-term budget deficit, significant expenditures on and growing public debt. Conclusion. It has been established that the current methodology for assessing budget security as part of the economic balance sheet is focused on the management of the budget deficit/surplus, the activity of budgetary and extra-budgetary funds of the sector of state management, servicing and repayment of the public debt. As a result, the calculation of the legally established integral indicator of budget security is not always appropriate due to its incomplete coverage of possible influencing factors. In order to strengthen the budgetary security of Ukraine by means of budgetary policy, it is advisable to implement: 1) construction of a structurally balanced budget, which provides not only the traditional balance of income and expenses, but also the financial stability of the budget for several upcoming periods; 2) expansion of the existing list of economic security level assessment sub-indicators of budget security to include other aspects of budget security; 3) reducing the burden on socially oriented expenditure items of the budget; 4) identification of risks and threats to the budgetary security of the state.