Thirteen months since the last tranche, the IMF has finally allocated the third tranche of its program to Ukraine, bringing the total disbursement to $7.6 billion. Although it is less than the originally planned $1.7 billion and came with substantial delays, the receipt of the $1 billion tranche was celebrated by the Ukrainian government as the first time Ukraine has progressed that far in any of its IMF programs.
In its previous programs, Ukraine was quick to abandon the difficult IMF-prescribed reforms soon after its economic crises became less acute. This program also tested Ukraine’s commitment to reform several times, with mixed success. Most recently, vested interests played a huge role in delaying necessary permits for the newly-created system of electronic income declarations for officials, threatening to dilute this important reform. Only after several letters from the international community and numerous statements by activists did the electronic declaration system receive the needed authorizations. The system has just started accepting electronic declarations, although its launch was plagued by problems.
