KYIV, Dec 10 – A meeting of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss the issue of cooperation with Ukraine under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) is scheduled for December 18, the IMF has reported on its website.

As reported, Ukraine expects the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund in December to approve a new 14-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) that is to replace the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) that was approved in March 2015 and is coming to an end in March 2019. It is assumed that the SBA with a volume of about $3.9 billion will help Ukraine maintain macrofinancial stability during the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019, when the country also faces peak payments on foreign debt.