KIEV, Feb. 5 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s government on Thursday survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament, the second time over the past seven months, while the financial crisis hitting Ukraine continued to worsen.

The hryvnia, the national currency, on Thursday depreciated by the most in more than three weeks against the U.S. dollar on concern the lack of government anti-crisis action will derail a $16.4 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

The no-confidence motion, put forward by the opposition Regions Party, was backed by 203 lawmakers, falling short of 226 votes that are required to oust the government in the 450-seat Parliament.

The development effectively provides the government immunity from any dismissal trough the mid-September, strengthening Tymoshenko’s position ahead of the next presidential election due in January 2010.

“I can say that in spite the no-confidence vote, a vote of confidence in the government has been approved,” Tymoshenko said after the vote.

The motion was backed by the Regions Party, the leading opposition group, which controls 175 seats, and by 20 members of the Communist Party, a small opposition group that controls a total of 27 seats.

At least 10 lawmakers loyal to President Viktor Yushchenko also backed the motion.

The Communist Party helped Tympshenko survive a similar no-confidence vote in July, increasing speculation that the party had been quietly supporting Tymoshenko.

“In a time when the government faces new challenges every day, it’s obvious that no opposition member is courageous enough to lead the government or to be a minister in the government,” Tymoshenko said.

Meanwhile, the hryvnia on Thursday depreciated by the most in more than three weeks against the dollar on concern the nation’s political turmoil will derail a $16.4 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

The hryvnia fell 5.3% to 8.1500, the biggest drop since Jan. 12, from 7.7450 yesterday, Bloomberg reported. It was 3.85% weaker at 8.0550 at 3:01 p.m. in Kiev. The currency also slipped versus the euro, dropping 3.66% to 10.3327.

The IMF’s mission to Ukraine warned that its loan to Ukraine “doesn’t make sense” if the nation’s budget deficit is wider than the government’s goal of 31.1 billion hryvnias ($4 billion), Delo newspaper reported Thursday, citing an unidentified person in Ukraine’s central bank.

“There is uncertainty whether the IMF will continue to see the point of the loan given the loose fiscal stance implemented by the Ukraine’s government,” said Dmitry Gourov, an analyst at Unicredit SpA in Vienna.

The IMF has extended its visit to the former Soviet state to the end of the week to decide on the delivery of the second tranche of the IMF loan, said Gourov. The country received the first $4.5 billion tranche in November.

President Viktor Yushchenko met with Marek Belka, director of the IMF European Department, to review the loan yesterday in Kiev. The visit was “an indication of serious problems in the Ukrainian economy and in how our joint program is being implemented,” Belka said, according to a statement on the president’s Web site. (tl/ez)