KYIV, July 29 – The International Monetary Fund will send a team to Ukraine in September before deciding whether the government qualifies resumption of $5 billion loan, Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director, said.

Georgieva and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke by phone on Wednesday as lending to Ukraine has been postponed for more than a year due to the government’s failure to implement economic reforms.

With the approval earlier this month of crucial judicial system reform, which is supposed to clean up corruption, Georgieva has noted the progress made by Ukraine, adding that some issues remain to be solved.

“Ukraine’s sound economic progress made under the IMF program,” Georgieva tweeted after the phone call. “Look forward to our production engagement to advance our work on remaining issues during a mission in September.”

Ukraine received $2.1 billion in June 2020 as part of the $5 billion Stand By loan, while $2.9 billion are still available for the government provided it implements economic reforms agreed with the IMF.

Zelenskiy praised the ongoing dialog with the IMF and said the government is committed to continue reforms.

"The $2.1 billion tranche we received helped us support people, SMEs, our medical industry during several lockdown periods," Zelenskiy said in a statement.

The parties also discussed progress in the implementation of the current IMF Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), namely, Ukraine's implementation of the benchmarks.

"Ukraine's position remains unchanged: relations with the IMF are very important for us, and we will continue implementing agreements with international partners," Zelensky said.

Zelenskiy and Georgieva exchanged views on the progress of reforms and institutional changes that are taking place in Ukraine, including the launch of the farmland market, reform in the infrastructure sector, the bill on de-oligarchization passed by the parliament at first reading.

Zelenskiy said he keeps the implementation of the judicial reform under personal control and makes every effort to implement it successfully.

Zelensky and Georgieva discussed the bill on the National Bank of Ukraine, which is being developed with the participation of international partners and will be considered by the Verkhovna Rada after the resumption of its work this autumn, as well as the adoption of the law on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine at the final reading. (tl/ez)