REUTERS
Ukraine’s key creditor, the International Monetary Fund, has said it welcomes the implementation of reforms in Ukraine and intends to assist Ukraine in reaching a deal with the creditors on restructuring a part of its debt, according to an IMF statement.
"IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde met with the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Natalia Jaresko, head of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriya Gontareva and Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius. She welcomed the progress that has been achieved by the Ukrainian authorities thanks to the reform program,” the fund said in its statement.
“At the same time, Ms. Lagarde and the ministers agreed on the need for further key reforms that will have external support, including ongoing discussions with private creditors on debt operations."
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine began negotiations on restructuring its public debt, including the restructuring of sovereign and quasi-sovereign bonds worth about $15.3 billion, with the public debt totaling $70 billion, in early March, soon after the approval of a new lending program from the IMF.
So far Ukraine hasn't made clear-cut proposals to creditors, having limited itself to assurances that all creditors will be treated equally. At the same time, according to some experts, one of the possible proposals would be writing off a part of the debt (in the range of 30-35%), although this is said to be unacceptable to the creditors. In particular, a committee of foreign shareholders who together hold half of the country’s external debt, and which is led by US investment fund Franklin Templeton, has stated it expects to "a speedy resolution" of the negotiations, but that is not ready to write off the debt.
At the same time creditors are said to have put forward some conditions that are also unacceptable for Ukraine.