Ukraine has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reconsider the schedule for the allocation of funds under a stand-by loan, combining its third and fourth tranches so as to receive them by the end of this year, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Shlapak has said.
“We want to combine the third and fourth tranches. We expect that it
will be about $2.2 billion. And we expect to receive them by the end of
the year,” he told reporters in Kyiv on Aug. 20.
Shlapak also said that of the second tranche of $1.4 billion, the
decision on the allocation of which is expected in late August, $1
billion is to be transferred to the state budget and $400 million to the
National Bank of Ukraine.
As reported, the IMF Executive Board on April 30 approved a two-year Small Business Administration (SBA) worth SDR 10.976 billion (about $17.01 billion) for Ukraine. Early
in May, the IMF transferred the first tranche worth SDR 2.058 billion
(about $3.2 billion), with SDR 1.29 billion (about $2 billion) allocated
to the Ukrainian government for budget support.
The second-fourth disbursements scheduled for July 25, Sept. 25
and Dec. 15, 2014, respectively, will total SDR 914.7 million each,
while the fifth-eighth quarterly disbursements of 2015 will amount to
SDR 1.372 billion each. The ninth disbursement of SDR 686 million will
be provided in mid-March 2016 if the terms and conditions stipulated in
the program are observed.
The IMF mission arrived in Ukraine for the first review of the
program on June 24 and worked until July 18. As part of the first review
the sides discussed the adjustment of the macroeconomic forecast and
the state budget for 2014, including due to the unstable situation in
Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The IMF Executive Board will consider on Aug. 29 the allocation of
the second tranche to Ukraine and Kyiv’s request to change the
fulfillment criteria and reconsider the schedule for the allocation of
funds under the program.
