You're reading: Government hopes to get about $3 billion from IMF this year

Ukraine's government hopes to get about $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said during the Examination for the Authorities program on the First National TV Channel on Tuesday.

"We’ll get two tranches this year: one in September and the other early in December together totaling about $3 billion," he said.

He noted that the funds would be spent mainly on "the modernization of the economy."

"Presently, the forex reserves of the National Bank exceed 30 billion [U.S. dollars], and are practically the same level as they were when [Viktor] Yanukovych’s government was disbanded," he said.

In his words, there is no urgent need to channel those funds into the replenishment of the central bank’s forex reserves.

"At the same time, we believe that [their] considerable share should be stored by the state mainly because the situation with the global economy is very unstable," he added.