REUTERS
The president said he would shortly enact the banking law.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced at a press conference on his first anniversary in office that he will soon sign a memorandum with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on financial assistance to Ukraine.
"I'm about to enact the banking law – the last step towards signing the memorandum between the state of Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund. We will sign this memorandum – I am sure that we will sign it in May. It cannot be delayed," he said in Kyiv on May 20.
Read alsoUkraine expects first IMF tranche in week or two, presidential official says
According to him, the banking law will soon arrive for him to sign.
"The banking law will be submitted to me tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, maybe even today. And the doors will be opened to the IMF assistance we were seeking very much – you all have seen this – even with the support of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine," he said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the National Bank of Ukraine predicts the first US$2 billion disbursement in IMF aid may arrive in the second quarter of 2020.
Spokesman for the International Monetary Fund Gerry Rice said earlier that the focus of IMF-Ukraine talks had shifted to a new financing program that will help the country to cope with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in the economy and the health sector. It may become a backup program, since the Ukrainian authorities have not yet fulfilled the conditions for the three-year Extended Fund Facility program worth US$5.5 billion, which was agreed upon in December 2019.