The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors on December 20 approved a $10 million Additional Financing loan for the Development of the State Statistics System for Monitoring the Social and Economic Transformation Project in Ukraine.
The bank’s statement reads that the loan will be allocated for 16 years with a grace period of seven and a half years with a reference to LIBOR rate.
“This additional financing will help Ukraine roll out the implementation of a modernized statistical system in line with international standards across the country,” Qimiao Fan, World Bank Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, said, according to the press release.
An agreement with the World Bank on a loan of $32 million for the statistics development project was signed in July 2004. It took effect in June 2005. The loan has to be repaid by February 15, 2024.
According to the 2013 national budget, the Ukrainian government is expecting to receive $660,000 of the first loan, and $9.22 million of the extra loan.
The World Bank’s press release reads that DEVSTAT project has already contributed to the development and improvement of methodologies on sector statistics, government financial statistics, balance of payments, monetary and banking statistics.
A new forecasting model has been elaborated and is being used by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry. The Integrated Statistical Data Processing System has been designed and currently is under development and testing, according to the press release.
“The Additional Financing will help the State Statistics Service of Ukraine to follow up on the implementation of the Integrated Statistical Data Processing System by rolling it out across the country,” reads the statement.
According to the World Bank, the project is fully consistent with the new Country Partnership Strategy for Ukraine for the period 2012-2016.
Since Ukraine joined the World Bank in 1992, commitments to the country total about $8 billion for 42 operations.
