REUTERS
The lender expects another 15% rise in gas prices in the spring of 2019, to be followed by the next one in the autumn of 2019.
The program of cooperation between Ukraine and its key lender, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), provides for the adjustment of gas prices to the market ones, which means the prices may grow by another 40%.
The market price is based on import parity, that is the average price of imported gas for a certain period. This component accounts for the largest share of the gas price for consumers. It includes the forecast price at Germany's gas trading platform NetConnect Germany (NCG hub), as well as the cost of gas transportation from NCG to Ukraine's western border through Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Ekonomichna Pravda online newspaper wrote on October 24, referring to its source familiar with the IMF's position.
Read alsoPM Groysman rules out further increase in gas prices for households
If earlier it was a question of a one-time increase in tariffs, now it is proposed to be implemented in several stages. Ukraine has a year to do this.
The IMF is sure that Ukraine will be able to meet such "preferential conditions" for increasing gas prices.
According to the publication, the lender expects another 15% rise in gas prices in the spring of 2019. The next one is scheduled for the autumn of 2019.
What exactly will be the increase depends on the situation on the global commodity markets.
On October 23, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman ruled out a further increase in gas prices for Ukrainian households until the end of the 2018/2019 heating season.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers will increase the gas price for households by 23.5%, to UAH 8,550 (US$304) per 1,000 cubic meters from November 1. According to the prime minister, the IMF initially demanded that the current price be increased by 60%.
Now gas prices for households are set at UAH 6,958, or $247, per 1,000 cubic meters. It is UAH 4,942, or $176, excluding VAT and transportation costs.
The issue of gas prices for households is a subject of talks between Ukraine and the IMF. The IMF earlier insisted that gas prices on the domestic market be adjusted (raised) to achieve parity with the price of imported gas.