Ukraine will not receive a new IMF tranche until next year
A new tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Funding Facility (EFF) will not arrive in Ukraine until 2018, reported the Press Service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
"The National Bank awaits the next tranche of the EFF program in the first quarter of 2018. Jointly with the surplus of the consolidated balance of payment, this would allow for increasing Forex reserves to $22.1 billion (or 4.2 months of future imports) as of late 2018," the NBU reports.
At the same time, the forecast for reserves at the end of 2017 decreased from $20 billion to $18.6 billion.
To obtain the new tranche, Ukraine needs to adopt a law on simplifying privatization and to establish an anti-corruption court.
The EFF cooperation program provides for the allocation of tranches amounting to $17 billion for Ukraine. It assumes a quarterly review of the program and the allocation to Kyiv of four tranches in 2015, as well as another four in 2016.