CORRUPTION AS A THREAT TO ECONOMIC SECURITY OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Economic security of the state plays a significant role in ensuring further economic development of the country, implementation of effective social policy, increasing the level of national competitiveness in the context of international economic cooperation. Summarizing different approaches, the authors concluded that in the scientific environment the definition of the essence of economic security of the state is studied on the basis of different basic parameters, which creates ambiguity in the understanding of this category. According to the authors, the economic security of the state should be understood as such a state of the national economy that allows to maintain resistance to external and internal threats, to ensure its external independence and internal stability, the ability to support the consistent implementation of national and state interests, stable capacity of economic entities and normal living conditions of the population. The transformation of the conditions of functioning of the modern world creates a significant number of threats to the economic security of the state, among which corruption occupies a key position. The scale of corruption in Ukraine is threatening, which is associated with the destruction of not only individual aspects of society, but also a threat to the existence of the country as a whole. The article defines the main and classification features of corruption on the basis of international law ratified by Ukraine, according to which corruption can be characterized. The authors cited the main threats of corruption, which have a real negative impact on the economic security of the state, namely: the growth of the shadow economy; insufficient use of budget funds at various levels; reducing the level of trust in the state and its ability to regulate economic processes; promoting social inequality and increasing the income gap between different segments of the population, etc. These conclusions were confirmed by the analysis of individual data, in particular the corruption perception index and the indicator of the level of shadow economy. In addition, based on the trend model, the forecast values of the corruption perception index in Ukraine were calculated, which showed positive changes in issues related to corruption processes in the country. In the article, the authors note that at the present stage of economic development, in order to reduce the level of corruption in the state, it is necessary to create an effective system of anti-corruption actions and establish new transparent rules of relations between society, government and business.