IMF Finalizes 8th Review, Ukraine Expects $500M Tranche

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reported that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is finalizing its work on the eighth review of the four-year, $15.5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program for Kyiv.

Ukraine has already passed a record seven successful reviews of the program. 

If the eighth is also successful, the IMF will disburse a tranche of around $500 million, Shmyhal wrote in his blog on Telegram. Shmyhal called the meetings with the IMF mission, led by its head Gavin Gray, “successful.” 

“Today, we had a constructive discussion on the further cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF. The Fund’s mission is finalizing the work on the eighth review of the program, which envisages a tranche of around $500 million. We count on a positive outcome for our country,” Shmyhal wrote. 

According to Shmyhal, the priorities for the eighth review are: improving public investment management, enhancing operations of the customs service, and strengthening the investment climate. 

Shmyhal and Grey also discussed Ukraine’s recovery and the engagement of the financial sector in this process, investments in reconstruction, and the use of frozen Russian assets. 

“I expressed my gratitude for the seven successful reviews of the program, which enabled us to attract financial resources to support the country’s macroeconomic stability. Since the start of the EFF program, Ukraine has received approximately $10.1 billion,” Shmyhal wrote.

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The IMF started working in Kyiv from Tuesday, May 20. 

IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program 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 most recent review of the IMF program was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board on March 28.

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.

Ukraine has only met one of the three benchmarks – conducting the first external NABU audit.

The National Securities and Stock Market Commission has submitted its strategy to the IMF in January, 2025, the institution replied to the Kyiv Post, answering a request. However, it is not clear whether the strategy has been officially adopted. 

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 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.