Ukraine’s state budget gap widened almost threefold in the first 10 months of the year as spending rose 16 percent, the Finance Ministry said.

The shortfall from January through October amounted to 33.2 billion hryvnia ($4.1 billion), compared with 12.4 billion hryvnia in the same period of 2011, the Kiev-based ministry said in a statement on its website today.

Ukraine raised 5.66 billion hryvnia from January to October by selling state assets, according to the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net;