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Ukraine's key lender, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has confirmed that the its Executive Board intends to discuss the first review under the four-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program on Friday, July 31, which will enable the disbursement of the next tranche to Ukraine, according to the Fund’s statement available to UNIAN.
"As we have said before, the IMF Executive Board is expected to discuss the first review under the EFF on Friday, July 31. The approval of the review by the Board would enable a disbursement of SDR 1182.1 million (about US $1.7 billion). That would bring total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 4.72 billion (about US $6.68 billion)," the statement reads.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine is implementing a reform program agreed with the IMF, which provides for the allocation of $17.5 billion in Ukraine under the new EFF program. The first $5 billion tranche arrived immediately after the approval of the program in March 2015.
In May-June, the IMF mission was conducting the first review of the ongoing reforms in Ukraine and provided its recommendations to the IMF Executive Board.
In the meantime, the IMF downgraded its forecast regarding Ukraine's economy, but noted that the deterioration of assessments was connected to the ongoing hostilities in the east of the country. At the same time, the IMF acknowledged the government's efforts aimed at achieving the financial stability. In July, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Ukraine had fulfilled all preconditions of the IMF and that the Ukrainian government was expecting a positive decision by the IMF Executive Board.