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Nation    

IMF team to assess reform implementation
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Oct. 12 – A team from the International Monetary Fund arrived in Ukraine on Monday for two weeks of talks with the government on whether the country qualifies for a $3.1 billion cash injection later this year.

Ukraine depends on the IMF’s $16.4 billion Standby loan for paying its foreign debts this year and next, and the continued lending is also instrumental for the hryvnia’s holding ground against the U.S. dollar.

The team’s arrival come amid fears in Ukraine that the IMF may postpone the next installment after the government has failed to implement a number of important policy measures that had been earlier agreed.

The team will work in Ukraine through October 24, before leaving for Washington with a report on whether Ukraine has implemented the reforms, a government official said.

Deputy Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyria met IMF deputy managing director John Lipski in Istanbul earlier this month to emphasize the importance of the continued lending. He told Lipski that the lending was “extremely important” for Ukraine.

Days later, however, Nemyria admitted there was a chance the IMF may postpone the lending, citing domestic political standoff between key political figures ahead of the next presidential election as the reason.

Oleksandr Shlapak, a deputy chief of staff at the office of President Viktor Yushchenko, said recently the IMF may postpone the lending because the government has failed to implement the reforms.

Yushchenko himself accused Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko - his political rival ahead of the next vote - for failing to implement five out of six key reforms that had been earlier agreed with the IMF.

But Bohdan Danylyshyn, the economy minister, said the government implemented 80% of reforms and policy measures that had been earlier agreed with the IMF.

Danylyshyn is due to visit Washington later this month for a meeting with Lipski.

Commenting on the government’s failure to hike domestic natural gas prices for households from September 1 as the government had earlier promised, Danylyshyn said the hike had been cancelled by a court ruling.

“It’s not the government, but power sector regulator that sets the prices,” Danylyshyn told Glavred magazine. “As you know, there was a court ruling that had banned the price hike.”

But Danylyshyn defended the ruling.

“I believe the households should pay at current prices instead of cornering the people with debt obligations and creating conditions when they stop paying for gas at all,” Danylyshyn said.

Tymoshenko, addressing people at a recent campaign trip throughout Ukraine, said the gas prices will stay unchanged through the end of the year as she had originally “promised.” (tl/ez)




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