Ukraine will not declare a moratorium on payments on a number of external commercial debts if it achieves progress in negotiations with the creditors prior to the meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund scheduled for July, according to Deputy Finance Minister Anton Shevalev, an UNIAN correspondent reports.
"By the time of holding a meeting of the IMF Board of Governors, progress should be made – engaging in the restructuring, harmonization of conditions," said Shevalev at a briefing on July 9.
According to the deputy minister, the agreement on confidentiality, reached with the creditors last week, was an important step, but it was not enough.
"We need to conduct further negotiations this week and the following one," Shevalev said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine has been implementing a joint reform program with the IMF, which provides for the allocation of $ 17.5 billion in Ukraine during a four-year term. The first $ 5 milion tranche was received immediately after the approval of the program in March.
The Board of IMF Governors is expected to decide on allocation of a second tranche in amount of $ 1.7 billion in July.
As part of the program with the IMF, Ukraine has been conducting negotiations with the creditors on restructuring its public debt, regarding extension of maturities, reduction of the coupon and writing-off part of the debt’s nominal value. The measures aim at saving $ 5.2 billion on debt securities payments in 2015 and up to $ 15.3 in the next four years.
In late June, Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko stated that if there were no progress in talks with the creditors, Ukraine would "theoretically" be in a position to declare a moratorium on public debt payments in late July, with such right being provided by a law, which had come in force on June 17, and the Cabinet had the right to impose a moratorium on foreign debt payments to private creditors until July 1, 2016.
According to the minister, the possibility of setting a moratorium will have no significant impact on Ukraine’s domestic market, while some experts predict that such move will cause devaluation of hryvnia by 20%.