IMF negotiations with Ukraine not frozen – finance minister

Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko has said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did not freeze negotiations with Ukraine, but their schedule has somewhat shifted.

This was due to the ministry's work on the 2021 national budget draft, he said in an interview with the Ekonomichna Pravda online newspaper.

Thus, Marchenko has refuted the claim by former Head of the President's Office, Andriy Bohdan, that the IMF has allegedly frozen contacts with Ukraine until December due to the misuse of funds from the COVID fund, in particular for road construction.

Read alsoUkraine needs second IMF tranche – NBU GovernorAt the same time, the minister listed the issues of concern to the IMF, including the limitation of salaries for members of supervisory boards and management, bills registered in the Verkhovna Rada that destroy the corporate governance system, as well as the situation with the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

"The situation with anti-corruption bodies must be urgently resolved," Marchenko said.

Stand-By Arrangement: background

• The IMF Executive Board on June 9 approved an 18-month SBA for Ukraine, with access equivalent to SDR 3.6 billion (about US$5 billion, or 179% of quota).
• The National Bank confirmed it had received the first disbursement worth US$2.1 billion on June 12, 2020.
• The IMF earlier said its mission would carry out in September the first review of how Ukraine implements a new 18-month SBA.
• Ukraine before the end of the year is supposed to have received all scheduled tranches within the new SBA, Marchenko believes.
• As of September 10, the IMF said it had not yet scheduled a working visit of its review mission to Ukraine.