Adviser to Zelensky explains cause for rescheduling of IMF disbursement

Oleh Ustenko, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, says the program of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not been halted but rescheduled.

He announced this on TV Channel Ukraina 24.

Read alsoUkraine to receive only one disbursement from IMF in 2021 – Fitch

Ustenko says Ukraine expects a new IMF tranche in 2021.

"Our program is designed for US$5 billion, we've got US$2.1 billion. And here it is not a problem that we need or do not need to implement. The problem is that what is stipulated in the program of cooperation with the IMF is part of the program of President Zelensky himself, i.e. the reform of the judicial system, the fight against corruption, and so on," he said.

According to him, there were certain "logistics" problems at the President's Office.

"As we understand, the President's Office has faced challenges of logistics nature rather than technical one – they have appeared because one cannot simply up and change Ukrainian legislation. To amend it, say, in view of the judicial system, the president held many meetings, spoke with experts – it was time-consuming. And logistically, we could not stick to the deadline that we hoped we would be able to manage," he said.

He says the program has not been terminated.

"As soon as the president's initiatives are voted on, we can say that from our side we have implemented what we promised to implement not only before the IMF, but also before Ukrainian society," Ustenko said.

IMF in Ukraine

• On June 9, 2020, the IMF's Executive Board adopted an 18-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) worth SDR 3.6 billion, or about US$5 billion, aimed at helping Ukraine overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• On June 12, Ukraine received the first IMF disbursement worth US$2.1 billion under the SBA.
• In late November, the Finance Ministry reported on the successful completion of talks with the IMF on benchmarks of the draft budget for 2021, which was one of the major prerequisites for starting the SBA review.
• On January 11, 2021, an IMF mission resumed work in Kyiv, they worked until February 12 but departed without any decision on the SBA review.