KIEV, Aug. 12 – Ukraine's state debt in 2009 will grow from 13.8% of GDP to 18.9% of GDP, according to a forecast made by Ukraine's Finance Ministry.

"Since 2008, the sum of state debt and its ratio to GDP has been growing due to the increasing crisis and a rise in the needs of the state for state borrowing, and due to the fall in economic activity," reads a ministry's report issued on Wednesday.

The ministry said that Ukraine's state debt had been falling since 1998, when it reached 48.2% of GDP and by late 2007 it totaled 10% of GDP.