REUTERS
Funds will be allocated for the budget's stabilization fund, set up to combat coronavirus.
Ukraine is expected to receive the first tranche of a new loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the amount of about $4 billion immediately after the adoption of the law on banking regulation, which passed its first reading this week, says Daniil Hetmantsev, head of the parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy.
"We have already received an official letter, a statement from the IMF, that there are these two conditions [the law on farmland market and banking regulation], that if they are met, the funds will immediately flow to Ukraine, right to the state budget. According to our estimates, this should be a loan of about $4 billion- not aid but namely a loan," Hetmantsev told Radio NV.
The MP adds that Ukraine is interested in getting a fairly cheap financial instrument from the Fund in such a crisis period, which will be sent to the national budget's stabilization fund, set up to tackle coronavirus.
Read alsoFarmland market launched in Ukraine: main facts
As UNIAN reported earlier, on March 31, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on farmland turnover and approved at first reading a bill on banking regulation.
As President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 27, the authorities agreed with the IMF leadership that after parliament passed laws on banking regulation and the launch of the land market, Ukraine would receive the first tranche of $1.75-2 billion from the Fund within about 15 days.
UNIAN memo. Ukraine and the IMF in December 2019 reached a staff-level agreement on a new three-year program of Extended Fund Facility in the amount of $5.5 billion. The decision on the new program is yet to be approved by the IMF Executive Board but the exact date for the meeting has not been determined.
In early March, the IMF announced that the Fund was providing about $50 billion in rapid financing for low-income and developing economies to overcome the negative consequences of the coronavirus epidemic, and subsequently the Fund announced readiness to mobilize a loan potential worth $1 trillion to help member states.