Ukraine must step up efforts to revive cooperation with IMF – NBU Deputy Governor

Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Dmytro Sologub says Ukraine urgently needs to intensify efforts to continue cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.

"The NBU deems that stepping up efforts to revive cooperation with the IMF is critical to maintaining macrofinancial stability in Ukraine," he told a briefing on monetary policy on April 12.

In his words, any delays in taking the required steps to revive cooperation with Ukraine's official lenders narrows the country's opportunities to receive financing required for making public debt repayments, which will peak in 2018-2020.

Sologub believes that the main risk to the NBU's macroeconomic forecast is that there may be no progress in implementing structural reforms, which is required for maintaining macroeconomic stability and receiving loans from the IMF.

UNIAN memo. In March 2015, the IMF approved a four-year EFF loan program for Ukraine under which $17.5 billion will be disbursed. Ukraine has already received four disbursements from the Fund to the tune of $8.7 billion. The program expires in March 2019.

On January 26, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that the country had fulfilled 80% of the IMF requirements, stressing he expected to receive the fifth disbursement in April 2018.

The IMF says that to receive the fifth tranche, Ukraine needs to ensure that the pension reform is consistent with the objectives of cooperation, as well as to pass a law on privatization, bring gas tariffs in line with import parity, create an anti-corruption court, and adopt a budget for 2018 with a deficit of no more than 2.5% of GDP.