Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Science in the Modern World‖ (May 4-6, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – Barcelona, Spain, 2026. - 260 p.

12 The main essence of public finance is that the state, through the relevant institutions, influences the socio-economic development of the country. It creates conditions for ensuring human and citizen rights, observes guarantees of social protection, national security, an adequate level of environmental protection, cultural development, and international representation. This is achieved through the use of tools, methods, means, and levers for the state to mobilize financial resources, distribute them, effectively use them, and systematically manage the socio-economic development of the country. The mechanism of financial management in the state includes a system of financial instruments, methods, and levers. The dynamics and pace of the country's socio-economic development, improving the level and quality of life of the population, depend on the level of perfection and effectiveness of the financial mechanism. The level of financial potential and the government's ability to solve urgent socio-economic problems depend on the completeness of budget revenues accumulated by the state. The centralization of financial resources negatively affects regional development due to the inability of local budgets to solve urgent problems on the ground. Therefore, budget decentralization, which began in Ukraine in 2015, is designed to solve this problem. The role and functions of public finances correspond to the socio-economic policy of the state, its strategy to satisfy the needs of the population for a better life, to receive public goods and services in sufficient quantity and quality. To create new jobs, stimulate production, promising sectors of the economy, to contain the level of unemployment, inflation, public debt, budget deficit. An important function of public finances is to solve economic, social, and environmental problems, create a favorable investment climate, ensure sustainable dynamics of the country's socio-economic development, generate an appropriate amount of revenue for all budget levels to gradually increase social standards, ensure state security, the stability of the financial system, and effectively use budget funds in priority areas of the country's socio-economic development.