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The land reform, which provides for the launch of the farmland market in Ukraine, is no longer a condition for the country to receive the next tranche from the International Monetary Fund, IMF spokesman William Murray told a Thursday briefing in Washington.
The reform could be implemented later this year, according to Murray.
At the same time, the IMF speaker stressed that the conditions for allocating the fourth tranche to Ukraine remain “pension reform and on measures to speed up privatization and ensure concrete results in anti-corruption efforts.”
As UNIAN reported earlier, in the framework of the IMF’s third revision of the Extended Fund Facility, Ukraine pledged to introduce land reform until the end of May, and pension reform - until the end of April 2017. However, the parliament passed the first reading of pension reform as late as mid-July, while failing to consider land reform until the close of the session.
Read alsoUkraine fulfills all criteria of cooperation program with IMF - NBUEarlier media reports claimed that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde had reached an agreement to exclude land reform from the list of mandatory conditions for the allocation of the next tranche of financial assistance. At the same time, according to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, the IMF postponed the release of its next disbursement, scheduled for July, due to the Rada’s unwillingness to adopt land reform.
Read alsoPoroshenko, Lagarde review status of reform implementation in UkrainePrime Minister pointed out that the land reform, which provides the opportunity for Ukrainian citizens to purchase up to 200 hectares of land (and for farms – up to 1,000 hectares) is 99% ready but financial instruments to support farming need to be developed and consultations with all parties must be held. The government expects to receive the IMF’s fourth tranche this autumn.