KIEV, May 5 - Rising budget outlays on social programs remain a major inflationary factor in Ukraine, the National Bank said in its fiscal survey for the first quarter of 2008.

"The strengthening social accent on budget policy has deepened the internal macroeconomic disequilibrium that has been characteristic in recent years, and whose consequence has been to further strengthen inflationary pressures Despite this, the thrust of budget policy in the most recent year has not changed," the report says.