Ukraine has fulfilled all obligations for the third revision of the EFF extended financing program and expects a positive decision by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the allocation of the fourth tranche of about $900 million in the near future, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said.
“We are expecting a meeting of the board of the International Monetary Fund in the near future. It seems to me that the date of such a meeting is planned for March 21, at which a decision on Ukraine will be made,” he said on the national telethon.
According to Marchenko, these funds will be received immediately after a successful discussion at the Executive Board.
“So far we are fulfilling all our obligations. And I don’t see any particular problems for us to continue to fulfill these obligations in 2024,” the Minister of Finance emphasized, predicting further cooperation with the IMF under the EFF program.
He also noted that Ukraine still considers the basic option of receiving direct budget support from the United States this year, about which it receives constant assurances from the American side.
“We hope that a solution will be found in the lower house (of the U.S. Congress). There is now every reason for this. We hope that direct budget support will continue, this is important for cooperation with the IMF, for forming a pool of partners,” Marchenko said.
The mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the positive conclusions of which will mark the beginning of work on a new program, has started work on Ukraine in Vienna on October 17, the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on Monday.
“We are committed to active work with the Fund’s experts. We hope for fruitful results of the mission and the definition of parameters for starting work on a new monitoring program with the involvement of the IMF Board, which will become the basis for a full-fledged program with the Fund,” the press service quoted NBU Governor Andriy Pyshny as saying.
It also said that representatives of the NBU, led by Pyshny, will take part in working meetings with mission experts, during which the current condition of the Ukrainian economy, macro-forecasts and parameters of the national budget for 2023 and sources of covering its deficit will be considered.
Ukraine is accurately servicing its public debt, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects that this situation will continue, but they call for supporting the country with grant financing.
“At the moment, Ukraine is servicing its debt in an orderly way. And we would expect that to continue,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a traditional briefing on Thursday.
Asked about the lack of recommendation to Ukraine to request freezing of payments or something like that, Rice noted that he had no other position than the one stated above.
“We’ve been supporting them with a program loan of $1.4 billion. We’ve supported them from the SDR, the SDR allocation. We’ve established the administered account for donors to support Ukraine. Canada, Germany, the Netherlands have all stepped in so far. We are expecting more in the coming days,” he said.
“What we see as the priority in terms of financing for Ukraine right now is grant financing. In in the short term that’s the best form of assistance that can be provided by the international community in light of the war situation and the nature of the shock. And that would allow the Ukrainian government to remain operational without incurring further debt,” he added.
