KYIV, May 11 – Ukraine seeks to receive $5 billion of International Monetary Fund assistance in 2020-21 under a new program, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said on Friday, Reuters reported.

Ukraine has been earlier seeking to secure up to $8 billion from the IMF, including money to help the country pay for the coronavirus response.

The IMF has shifted its discussions with Ukraine to providing an 18-month Standby Arrangement instead of a more conditional three-year Extended Fund Facility to allow the government more room to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in the near term.

“The size of the aid for the years 2020-21, which is being discussed, is $5 billion,” Marchenko said at a televised meeting of the parliament financial committee. Ukraine hopes to finalize talks next week.

It may be easier for Ukraine to negotiate up to $5 billion from the IMF in 2020-2021 under the Stand-By Arrangement than under the EFF program, Vladyslav Rashkovan, the representative of Ukraine in the IMF, said.

"Conditions for receiving these funds during 2020-2021 are easier than receiving the same $5 billion in the framework of the EFF program, since it does not require "titanic" efforts to promote structural reforms," Rashkovan said on Facebook.

In the current global environment of uncertainty, the fund understands that it is very difficult for countries to plan structural reforms for several years to come, he said.

Ukraine needs to secure the loan before the end of May as budget revenue will not be able to support spending due to coronavirus quarantine, Olena Belan, the chief economist at Dragon Capital, said.

"It is necessary to get financial assistance from the IMF before the end of May in order to continue maintaining the budget situation," she said at a discussion organized by the Holos faction this week.

Belan noted that a fairly strong decrease in tax revenues is already visible compared to last year, but so far the situation is smoothed out by the transfer by the National Bank of UAH 42.7 billion in profit over the past year and the availability of $1.2-1.5 billion on government accounts.

She added that after making changes to the state budget, the government is only now beginning to significantly increase costs, and at the end of May, when it is necessary to pay off $1 billion of eurobonds under U.S. guarantees, the funds for them may come to an end. (tl/rt/ez)