A Ukrainian delegation lead by Finance Minister Yuriy Kolobov will take part in an annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which will take place in Washington, an informed source told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the source, the minister and representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine left for Washington on Thursday, Apr. 19, immediately after attending the Ukrainian Investment Summit in London.
The agency’s interlocutor found it difficult to say which officials of the international financial institutions are to meet with Ukrainian delegates during their visit to Washington.
As reported, after the presidential election and government reshuffles in Ukraine in early 2010, the 2008 Stand-By Agreement (SBA), under which Ukraine received $11 billion, was suspended. In late July 2010 the IMF decided to renew its loan partnership with Ukraine through a new SBA worth SDR 10 billion (about $15.6 billion). In late July 2010, Kyiv received the first tranche of SDR 1.25 billion under the new program. The IMF decided in December 2010 to allocate a second tranche worth SDR 1 billion.
The program foresaw future quarterly allocations of eight more tranches starting from the middle of March 2011 in the case of there being further successful cooperation. However, an IMF mission that worked in Kyiv in March 2011 could not recommend to the IMF Executive Board that it approve a new tranche for Ukraine. The IMF had expected Ukraine to approve pension reform and settle the problem of low prices of natural gas for households.
On November 4, 2011, an IMF mission released an announcement after its work in Kyiv from October 25 to November 3, 2011, according to which the mission had taken a pause to carry out additional technical work.
