RIGA, LATVIA, May 21 (Reuters) – Ukraine hopes to reach an agreement next month with the International Monetary Fund on re-opening its $2.6 billion loan program, Finance Minister Ihor Mityukov said on Sunday.
'I hope the mission that will come in mid-June will finalise all the issues,' Mityukov told bankers and businessmen at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) annual meeting.
The fund froze its extended fund facility program to Kyiv in September last year because of the slow pace of reforms.
Ukraine has just approved a privatization program for 2000 which was a key condition for continued IMF financing.
But the former Soviet republic's relations with IMF have soured recently over allegations that its central bank overstated its reserves figures by up to $713 million in 1997 to win $200 million in IMF loans.
'Without the IMF program Ukraine will survive, but we would have to implement a different economic program. We don't want to do that, we would like to concentrate on reforming the economy not on fighting inflation,' Mityukov said.
Ukraine plans to approach the Paris Club of sovereign lenders with a plan to restructure $500-$700 million of its debt, but needs first to have an IMF program in place.
The cash-strapped country avoided default last month, restructuring $2.37 billion in short-term commercial debt for longer-term paper.
It still faces over $1 billion in foreign debt payments this year, while reserves stood at just $993 million in late April.
