UJ.com

Top 2 

                        FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2024
Make Homepage /  Add Bookmark
Front Page
Nation
Business
Search
Subscription
Advertising
About us
Copyright
Contact
 

   Username:
   Password:


Registration

 
GISMETEO.RU
UJ Week
Top 1   

    
Nation    

NBU: Budget changes needed for IMF loan
Journal Staff Report

KYIV, Sept 24 – Ukraine should amend 2021 budget draft to secure at least one installment from the International Monetary Fund’s $5 billion loan by the end of the year, a central bank official said Thursday.

Dmytro Sologub, the deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, said the government has already lost an opportunity to receive two out of three loan installments this year.

"What we can now focus on and try to do is to receive the IMF tranche by the end of the year... Most likely, as in 2018, it will be tied to the adoption of the budget. We are speaking about November," Sologub said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Among the possible reasons for the delayed installments analysts pointed to the reshuffle of the NBU and replacement in July of reform-minded NBU Governor Yakiv Smolii with relatively unknown banker Kyrylo Shevchenko.

The IMF has previously warned Ukraine that the country needs to accelerate the fight against corruption and restart economic reforms before the Fund can resume lending.

The delayed installments underscore the depth of the budget crisis that may be triggered if the government fails to deliver on the reform promises. The government’s budget revenue was in decline this year due to shutdown of the economy following the coronavirus pandemic in March.

The NBU suggested the government amend the 2021 budget draft to more conservative option, with inflation at 7.3% and letting the hryvnia depreciate to UAH 29.10 per U.S. dollar next year.

Also, the current 2021 budget deficit, forecast at 6% of GDP, is probably too high and may be rejected by the IMF, Sologub said.

Winning resumption of lending from the IMF is crucial for Ukraine in order to secure financing from other sources, such as EUR 1.2 billion in coronavirus budget assistance from the European Union and funds from the World Bank.

Salogub said the NBU reshuffle has led to a situation that Ukraine must work hard to prove again to the IMF that the reforms will not be stopped or reversed.

"The NBU has actually returned to the situation in 2015, in which it already was, when we need to win trust from the IMF practically from scratch,” Sologub said. As practice shows, this takes from some six to nine months. Moreover, during these six-nine months there should be a clean track record." (om/ez)




Log in

Print article E-mail article


Currencies (in hryvnias)
  28.03.2024 prev
USD 39.23 39.14
RUR 0.425 0.422
EUR 42.44 42.44

Stock Market
  27.03.2024 prev
PFTS 507.0 507.0
source: PFTS

OTHER NEWS

Ukrainian Journal   
Front PageNationBusinessEditorialFeatureAdvertisingSubscriptionAdvertisingSearchAbout usCopyrightContact
Copyright 2005 Ukrainian Journal. All rights reserved
Programmed by TAC webstudio