MOSCOW, March 30 – The draft amendments to the national budget for 2009 proposed by the Ukrainian government do not contain effective anti-crisis proposals and will lead only to stronger inflation pressure, according to Mykola Azarov, the head of the parliamentary committee for finance and banking activities.

Azarov told the press in Moscow on Friday during a Russian-Ukrainian forum that the government was focusing on printing additional money to finance the budget deficit and expand subsidies for national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrayiny.