Financing of agricultural enterprises: analysis of long-term trends and structural changes

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of long-term trends in the financing of agricultural enterprises in Ukraine. It is argued that agriculture is one of the most important types of economic activity for the Ukrainian economy, as together with other related types of economic activity (processing industry, trade) form about half of GDP. In such conditions, an important task of ensuring the sustainable development of agriculture is the financing of agricultural enterprises while respecting the principles of sufficiency and financial stability. The application of a system of absolute and relative indicators for empirical assessment of financing of agricultural enterprises of Ukraine, as well as technologies of regression analysis, correlation analysis is proposed. It is established that the financial resources of agricultural enterprises of Ukraine in the study period (2009–2019) increased 7.2 times, which exceeds the growth rate of total financial resources of enterprises in the economy and by type of economic activity (transport, warehousing, postal and chickens). activities, industry, construction, wholesale and retail trade, financial and insurance activities, etc.). It is argued that the periodization of financing of agricultural enterprises of Ukraine in the long run on the basis of seven features (total financial resources, equity, long-term liabilities, current liabilities, level of financial stability, priorities by size of enterprises and priorities by type agricultural activity). The empirical assessment of financial support of agricultural enterprises of Ukraine allowed to distinguish three periods: 2010–2013 – toincrease in financial resources of agricultural enterprises of Ukraine with the predominance of equity, ensuring the financial stability of enterprises, violated payment discipline; 2014–2016 – toreduction of financial resources of agricultural enterprises under the condition of predominance of borrowed funds, partial loss of financial stability of enterprises during economic, currency and political instability; 2017–2019 – toincrease in financial resources of agricultural enterprises in the direction of restoring financial potential with the transition of importance to medium and small agricultural enterprises specializing in the cultivation of annual and biennial crops, livestock, ancillary activities in agriculture and post-harvest activities. Keywords: agriculture, financing of agricultural enterprises, financial resources, equity, loan capital, long-term trends.