KIEV, June 18 – The International Monetary Fund has become increasingly concerned over the Ukrainian government’s decision to classify vital economic statistics this year, and this may “start to impede” its lending program to the country, a senior IMF official said.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko banned the State Statistics Committee from releasing economic growth statistics since January. Ukraine’s economy is thought to have contracted 25% on the year in the first quarter, one of the worst such indicators in the world.

“Not receiving the official GDP statistics may start to impede the program because this information is critically important for further adjustments,” Yuriy Yakusha, an assistant IMF executive director from a group of countries, said in a letter to the government.

The letter, sent on June 11 to Deputy Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyria, National Bank of Ukraine Governor Volodymyr Stelmakh and acting Finance Minister Ihor Umanskiy, was obtained and published on Thursday by Unian news agency.

Yakusha wrote the letter after meeting Marek Belka, the leader of the IMF’s European department, as Ukraine has been seeking to secure at least $7 billion in new lending through the end of the year.

The letter comes a day after Tymoshenko, citing undisclosed “official information” at press conference said the IMF had been ready to increase lending to Ukraine.

Ukraine relies on the IMF lending for avoiding default on foreign debts this year and next, analysts said. Ukraine also needs loans to support the national currency, the hryvnia, as hard currency revenue has dwindled, reflecting collapse in demand for steel, Ukraine’s main exports.

Yakusha said the IMF, which originally predicted the Ukrainian economy to contract 8% on the year in 2009, has been considering worsening the forecast, a move that would probably cause revision of other macro-economic indicators.

“The IMF has been already revising its forecast for Ukraine this year,” Yakusha said in the letter. “The latest calculations show there will be contraction of 12%. The worsening of the forecast leads the worsening of budget revenue, widening budget deficit.”

The Tymoshenko government has taken unprecedented steps this year to conceal the state of economy by refusing to disclose vital economic growth statistics.

The government - at Tymoshenko’s personal pressure - approved at least two special orders over the past three months effectively banning the release of economic data.

The orders were apparently politically motivated to shield Tymoshenko from criticism for slow reaction to the economic crisis and her failure to approve anti-crisis measures, analysts said. The release of bad economic data may hurt Tymoshenko politically ahead of the presidential election due in January 2010.

President Viktor Yushchenko, Tymoshenko’s political rival who was also cut off from the updates of economic statistics, had recently estimated the economy had contracted 25% on the year in the first quarter. (tl/ez)