Head of Ukraine's National Bank: Ukraine must cooperate with the IMF or our reserves will melt away
The delay in resumptions of relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) poses a risk for Ukraine’s financial stability, as was stated by the head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Valeriya Hontareva, at a conference in Kyiv, UNIAN reports.
“I want to tell you that no one has any doubt that if we don’t resume cooperation with the IMF immediately … our reserves will start to melt as well as our market’s possibilities,” she said.
The Head of the NBU noted that this year the regulator has changed reserves forecasts four times, including a forecast for the end of the year due to the constant delay in funding from the IMF.
Earlier Hontareva stated that the National Bank of Ukraine expects that the delay in the country’s funding schedule by the IMF in the EFF extended funding program will be resumed shortly and the fourth tranche will be given at the beginning of 2017.
On Wednesday, 16 November, the IMF Mission completed its work in Ukraine. Observers stated that there is a need to provide Ukrainian authorities more time to implement the requirements specified in the cooperation agreement with the IMF.
On 14 September, the IMF decided to provide Ukraine with the third tranche of $1 billion on the EFF extended funding program.
Initially it was planned that the third tranche would be $1.7 billion which should have been in the country in 2015. However, due to Ukraine’s failure to comply with all the requirements, the fund reduced the tranche to $1 billion.