The date of a meeting of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the approval of a new three-year EFF program for Ukraine for $5.5 billion is still unknown, however, in any case, this must be preceded by Kyiv’s fulfillment of prior actions, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice has stated.
At a briefing in Washington on Dec. 12 he noted that preliminary agreements had been achieved on the new EFF program at the staff level agreement (SLA), which should still be subject of discussion by the board.
Rice recalled the telephone conversation between IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last weekend, during which Ukraine’s “impressive progress … in the past few months in advancing reforms and continuing with sound economic policies” was noted. She assured the president of “the IMF’s readiness to support the authorities’ policy agenda to maintain macro-economic stability and lift the economy to a path of higher, sustainable, and inclusive growth, including with a new IMF-supported program.”
At the same time, he said the IMF managing director noted that “Ukraine’s economic success depends crucially on strengthening the rule of law, enhancing the integrity of the judiciary, and reducing the role of vested interests in the economy, and that it is paramount to safeguard the gains made in cleaning up the banking system and recover the large costs to the taxpayers from bank resolutions.”
