Denys Shmyhal / Photo from UNIAN
This year, the country will have to pay off nearly $9 billion on external and domestic debts.
Without the support of international organizations, Ukraine would run the risk of falling into the "abyss of financial default," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says.
This year, Ukraine is supposed to pay off $3.5 billion on external obligations and $5.5 billion on domestic ones, the head of government told a TV panel show.
Therefore, given the challenges facing the country in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, first of all, money should be used to protect health and life of Ukrainian citizens, rather than pay off external debts, he added.
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"Without the support of international financial organizations, to pay off external and internal debts, we would probably just have to fall into this abyss of financial default. This would be an extremely frightening scenario for our country, so we certainly don't want that and we don't expect such developments, so we'll do everything possible so that the country remains financially stable, has a strategy to tackle and overcome the consequences of coronavirus," the prime minister said.
UNIAN memo. Ukraine and the IMF in December 2019 reached a staff-level agreement on a three-year Extended Fund Facility worth $5.5 billion. The decision on the new program is yet to be approved by the IMF Executive Board. No exact date has been scheduled for considering the Ukraine issue as Ukraine is set to fulfill all preliminary conditions for launching the new program.
In early March, the IMF announced that the Fund provided about $50 billion in rapid financing for low-income and developing economies to overcome the negative consequences of the coronavirus epidemic, and then announced readiness to mobilize a loan potential worth $1 trillion to help member states.
On March 26, the IMF announced progress in negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities and the possibility of increasing the assistance volume, while recalling the need to adopt laws to enhance banking regulation and on land reform.