The head of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visiting here on Tuesday praised Ukraine for its progress in stabilizing its financial sector, according to Xinhua.
"We commend your efforts in the framework of our cooperation. Particularly I want to mention Ukraine's actions to stabilize its monetary policy," said Christopher Jarvis during a meeting with National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) chairman Igor Sorkin.
Jarvis stressed the price stability in the East European country, which posted the first deflation in 10 years in 2012, when its annual inflation rate fell to minus 0.2 percent.
Ukraine's banking system also remains in a relatively steady position, Jarvis said.
Sorkin, for his part, spoke highly of the results of Kiev's cooperation with the global lender.
"We have made significant progress in implementing our agreements with the IMF. I believe that it is our common success," Sorkin said.
The IMF mission arrived in Kiev on January 29 to discuss the possibility to provide a new stand-by program for Ukraine. Mission members will have talks with Ukrainian authorities until February 12.
Ukraine hopes that once the IMF team finishes its work, the global lender could give the country fund in the amount equivalent to 10 billion special drawing rights (SDRs), or about 15.5 billion U.S. dollars.
The IMF's previous 15-billion-dollar stand-by loan program to Ukraine, granted in June 2010, was frozen in February 2011 due to Kiev's failure to meet the IMF's requirements.
