Short-term debt of the corporate sector and its impact on the stability of the financial system of Ukraine

The article deals with the economic essence of accounts payable. It is determined that in the process of deformations in the structure of business capital, it acquires the characteristics of a surrogate source of business financing, which in turn creates risks for the stability of Ukraine’s financial system. The authors describe the main trends in the dynamics and structure of accounts payable and define its impact on the growth of debt burden of non-financial corporations in Ukraine at the aggregate level. A comparison of the volume and growth rates of accounts payable in Ukraine and the EU countries is made, which allows to confirm the hypothesis of the introduction of a distorted model of business financing in Ukraine’s corporate sector. The authors point out that one of the reasons for the abnormally high debt dependence in the NFC sector at the aggregate level is the replacement of equity with other current liabilities (including financial loans from associated physical and legal entities), which allowed to establish such a flexible capital structure, which can help rapidly withdraw assets abroad in the event of macro-financial destabilization or other threats of capital loss related to the insecurity of property rights and the prevalence of fiscal voluntarism in Ukraine. The authors conclude that with the overload of balance sheets with short-term debts against the background of a significant reduction in equity leads to a rapid loss of financial stability. At the same time, under the influence of restrictions on activities and other concomitant barriers to doing business due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the financial depletion of the non-financial corporations sector could lead to a wave of corporate bankruptcies. It is concluded that under the influence of narrowing business access to capital in the financial market there is a rapid increase in lending to domestic business by nonresidents, which gives grounds to conclude that in this way domestic business lends itself, using funds previously withdrawn abroad. Further development of these trends not only can be a catalyst for financial imbalances at the level of individual enterprises, but can also provoke a crisis in the foreign exchange market. The authors substantiate that one of the ways to reduce the volume of current debt obligations is to assist the government in transforming the companies’ short-term liabilities into long-term ones. This can be done by converting the companies’ current liabilities into long-term bonds on a voluntary basis using simplified procedures for registration of their issue, and by registering current liabilities to suppliers (for goods and services) as long-term promissory notes. The publication was prepared within the research project on “Financial risks of doing business in Ukraine: the sector of non-financial corporations” (state registration No 0118U006088).