KIEV, Oct. 27 – Yulia Tymoshenko's government has tripled Ukraine's state debt, and the prospect of default is more probable, according to Sergiy Tihipko, a former governor of the National Bank of Ukraine and one of the potential candidates for the Ukrainian presidency.

He was commenting on data on the pace of growth of Ukraine's state debt posted on the official Web site of the Ukrainian president. The debt exceeded UAH 205 billion, and this is three times up compared to late 2007. Despite the fact that the law on the national budget for 2009 allowed issue state guarantees for foreign debts of economic entities worth UAH 37 billion, state guarantees worth UAH 50 billion have been issued, the press service of the politician has reported.