Ukraine's central bank has suggested that a fresh round of negotiations on unfreezing a $15 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund has failed.
The bailout program was halted at the beginning of this year over the government’s reluctance to implement unpopular reforms such as raising utility prices for households.
The National Bank said Friday that an IMF mission was completing its visit to Kyiv and the bank expressed hope that a decision to resume the aid would be made "in the near future."
IMF Ukraine representative Max Alier said in a statement later Monday that a mission had visited the country Oct. 25 to Nov. 3 and progress had been made on policies to complete the second review.
Alier said that the IMF had "decided to take a pause to enable some additional technical work to be carried out," with policy discussions expected to resume in the near future.
Ukraine’s government is unwilling to push through the painful reforms ahead of parliamentary elections next year and is counting on getting a discount on natural gas supplies from Russia.
