Ukraine's Finance Ministry expects two IMF disbursements worth US$3.5 bln by end of 2020

The total volume under the new program should be at least US$8 billion.

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Ukraine's Finance Ministry expects two disbursements worth US$3.5 billion will be provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a new program by the end of 2020.

"At the moment, we are talking about US$3.5 billion and, accordingly, two tranches. The first tranche is US$1.75 [billion] and the second tranche is US$1.75 [billion]," Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said during an online meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy.

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According to him, talks with the Fund are currently under way.

The total volume of the new two-year program of cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF should be at least US$8 billion, the minister said.

Marchenko also said that Ukraine had not applied for an IMF separate loan as part of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

"Ukraine is working on the EFF [Extended Fund Facility] structural program; we haven't applied for a separate credit line. That is, we believe that under the structural program we could get all the assistance we need," he said.

"If we are negotiating the EFF program, then we are going for this program. If we had gone for the RFI [Rapid Financing Instrument], we would have got less money for a shorter period under worse conditions," he added.

UNIAN memo. Ukraine and the IMF agreed on a new three-year EFF program worth US$5.5 billion in December 2019. The decision on the new program should be approved by the IMF Executive Board, but the exact date for consideration of this issue has not yet been determined because Ukraine has not fulfilled all the conditions for the launch of the new program.

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