IMF to decide on further bailout of Ukraine in late January

"We expect that the IMF Executive Board will meet at the end of next month, and I heard Deputy Finance Minister Artem Shevalev say that the third and the fourth tranches could be combined," Gontareva said.

According to the NBU Governor, Ukraine has fulfilled all obligations required to receive the next bailout tranches, but the IMF needs to analyze the fiscal package adopted last week in terms of its compliance with the program.

"They will analyze the budget parameters, and I hope that all will be fine," Gontareva said.

Read alsoIMF to verify 2016 national budget adopted by Ukraine - Jaresko As reported earlier, the IMF on March 11 approved a four-year EFF worth $17.5 billion for Ukraine. The first tranche worth $5 billion under this program arrived in Ukraine on March 13. The second tranche worth $1.7 billion was transferred to Ukraine on August 4.

The second program review was conducted in two stages. The IMF mission was operating in Kyiv in September, and on October 2 the talks were suspended due to the local elections in the country, as well as ongoing discussions of the tax reform and the draft state budget for 2016. In November, negotiations between Ukraine and the IMF resumed.

Based on the results of the last program review, the IMF noted the deepening of mutual understanding with the Ukrainian authorities on the key issues of economic reforms, but said it expected the Ukrainian government to draft a balanced budget for the next year that would be adopted by the Verkhovna Rada.

Read alsoRada Speaker signs bill on national budget for 2016On December 25, the Verkhovna Rada passed a bill on the national budget for 2016 as a basis and as a whole document with a deficit set at 3.7% of GDP and revenue planned at UAH 595 billion.

The bill on the budget was finalized with due regard to the earlier adopted laws.