NBU governor expects IMF tranche by year-end

Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine expects that Ukraine will sign an agreement with the International Monetary Fund and receive a tranche by the end of 2019.

"The macroeconomic forecast we are going to release provides for signing an agreement with the International Monetary Fund this year and receiving a tranche this year," NBU Governor Yakiv Smolii said at a press conference, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He noted that the NBU was unaware of the size of the tranche that the IMF would provide to Ukraine.

The IMF mission visited Kyiv on September 12-26, 2019 and started to discuss a new three-year program of support to Ukraine under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

The IMF Resident Representative Office in Ukraine informed that the mission's experts had fruitful discussions on policy areas for the new program, in particular on fiscal and monetary policy, as well as key reform measures. The attention was also paid to the importance of central bank independence and the protection of financial stability, as well as the need to make every effort to minimize the fiscal losses associated with the reorganization or liquidation of banks.

On October 22, Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Minister of Ukraine Tymofiy Mylovanov announced that the next IMF mission would arrive in Ukraine in early November 2019.

Earlier, the National Bank stated that Ukraine should conclude a new long-term cooperation program with the International Monetary Fund totaling $5-10 billion. According to the NBU forecasts, the first tranche under this program could be received by the end of 2019. The National Bank expects it to be about $2 billion.

The IMF's previous 14-month Stand-By Arrangement for Ukraine was approved at the end of 2018. It provided for the allocation of three tranches. Ukraine received the first and only IMF tranche under this program on December 21, 2018.

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