IMF Delegation Arrives in Kyiv for 8th EFF Review

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is starting its eighth review of the four-year, $15.5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program in Kyiv.

Priscilla Toffano, the IMF’s resident representative to Ukraine, announced the review in a press release on Tuesday, May 20.

On March 31, 2023, the IMF Executive Board approved the four-year EFF program. Ukraine has to meet structural benchmarks to receive IMF funding on a quarterly basis. The EFF program has two phases: wartime and post-war.

This is the first IMF program in history granted to a country in active war. The IMF changed its rules to allow lending to countries facing “exceptionally high uncertainty,” the IMF’s March 2023 press release says.

In 2025, Ukraine is set to receive up to $2.3 billion under the EFF program following four more reviews, including the ongoing one.

Ukraine has passed seven reviews in the past two years, receiving over $10.1 billion. The most recent one was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board on March 28.

Ukraine is meeting all its obligations under the program and has completed two structural benchmarks (one ahead of schedule). It is also following the EFF approved timeline for the rest, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported.

For the eighth review, Ukraine needed to appoint the head of the Bureau of Economic Security (the competition is ongoing), approve an external audit of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), and prepare a strategy for the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.

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Ukraine has only met one of the three benchmarks – conducting the first external NABU audit. The Commission for External Independent Audit has already assessed the work of NABU from March 2023 to November 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine reported.

Kyiv appointed Maksym Kutierha as the acting director (temporarily performing the duties) of the Bureau of Economic Security, reported Taras Melnychuk, representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada.

The selection process for the new Bureau of Economic Security chief is still ongoing – the latest meeting of the selection committee took place on May 13, 2025, according to the Ukrainian government’s website.

However, there is no confirmation yet on preparing a strategy for the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC).

Kyiv Post requested clarification from the NSSMC on why the IMF program benchmark was not met on time. No response had been received at the time of publication.

On May 19, National Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyy, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko, and IMF Mission Chief Gavin Gray discussed progress under the program and the mission’s agenda.

Key topics included boosting domestic revenues, ensuring debt sustainability, and continuing financial sector reforms.

In preparation for Ukraineʼs post-war recovery, they also discussed improving public investment management and upgrading financial market infrastructure to attract private funding, the National Bank reported.

Despite slip ups in Ukraine’s performance within the EFF program’s seventh review, the IMF allocated a tranche of $400 million in funding to Ukraine, Kyiv Post previously reported.

In the previous review, Ukraine delayed passing a law to raise tobacco excise taxes by several months.

Also, the deadline for fulfilling the requirement to completely repeal “Lozovy’s amendments” – changes to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine that came into force in 2018 – was postponed.

The changes primarily related to pre-trial investigation deadlines and the Law of Ukraine “On Forensic Examination.”

“The fact that Ukraine managed to reach an agreement on the Review at the staff level [without canceling the ‘Lozovy’s amendments’] means that once again the IMF is showing some flexibility towards us,” said Maksym Samoiliuk, an economist at the Ukrainian Center for Economic Strategy.

In the previous memorandum, the IMF criticized Ukraine for failing to meet its requirements on time.

“Program performance has been strong, despite some slippages in the governance sphere,” the IMF staff wrote in the recent IMF memorandum.