The Ukrainian authorities and the IMF mission did not reach an agreement on a new cooperation program during the two-week negotiations.
Ukrainian News writes about this with reference to several sources.
The agency recalls that IMF experts arrived in Ukraine on September 11, and on the same day, the Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk stated that the purpose of the negotiations was to obtain a staff agreement (recommendation to the board of directors) to open a new cooperation program.
Ukraine counted on a $ 6 billion 3-year EFF program. Concurrently, Kyiv planned to agree on a loan of approximately the same amount with the World Bank. However, the mission leaves without a draft memorandum, the news reported.
Allegedly, the main reason for the lack of agreement with the IMF was information about the possibility of a settlement agreement between the state and the ex-owners of Privatbank. The IMF considers it impossible to cancel the nationalization of the bank or return part of the shares to their previous owners. Today, the IMF is solving the question of how to prevent a change in the state’s position on Privatbank.
Another issue, because of which the program cannot be provided yet, is the lack of clarity with the final version of the state budget for 2020, UN reported.
According to the publication, the third problematic issue is the preservation of the independence of the National Bank. The IMF fears that if the NBU leadership is changed, then this may affect the independence of the regulator.
An official report on the mission’s visit is expected tomorrow.
We recall, earlier it was reported that the IMF mission in Ukraine evaluated the draft budget - 2020.
