KIEV, Sept. 4 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday resumed her controversial plan of bailing out Soviet-era bank deposits, two months after the payments had been suspended due to the lack of funds.

The plan is controversial as many economists blame it for Ukraine’s sky high consumer inflation this year with the country’s 12-month inflation at almost 27% in July - the highest figure in Europe.

Oshchadbank, Ukraine’s state-owned savings bank, said Thursday it had received the first payment of 50 million hryvnias from the government to make the bailout payments.