Ukrainian National Bank head hopes for IMF disbursement of $2.2 bln in coming days

MOSCOW. June 21 (Interfax) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board is due to complete the fourth EFF review and to approve the fifth tranche of about $2.2 billion for Ukraine in the coming days, head of the National Bank of Ukraine Andrei Pyshny said.

"The IMF mission commended performance of the National Bank of Ukraine and the Ukrainian team in June, so we are expecting the IMF Executive Board to complete the fourth EFF review in the coming days," Ukrainian media quoted Pyshny. He made the statement on a social network after the bank board met with IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath, IMF Executive Director Paul Hilbers and IMF European Department Deputy Director Uma Ramakrishnan in Kiev on Thursday.

He said they discussed tasks and challenges of 2024-2025

"We underlined yet again that both parameters of the financial support from partners, such as sufficiency and regularity, are equally important to us," Pyshny said.

He said he was glad to hear that the IMF was focused on the evaluation of all possible development scenarios in order to find solutions.

As reported, the four-year EFF was approved in the amount of $15.6 billion on March 31, 2023, as part of the $122 billion international support package for Ukraine. The first tranche of $2.7 billion was allocated in early April, followed by the second and third in the amount of SDR664 million (about $881 million - 890 million at the then exchange rate) in early July and mid-December 2023.

At the end of March this year, the Executive Board approved the allocation of the fourth tranche of SDR664 million (about $880 million) to Ukraine following the third review, when the fulfillment of obligations due through the end of December 2023 was assessed. That brought the total funding under the program to $5.4 billion.

Three more tranches are envisaged for 2024 after the corresponding program reviews: SDR1.670 billion ($2.20 billion) at the end of June, and SDR835 million in September and December. Two tranches are planned for 2025: SDR684 million at the beginning of March and at the end of August, to be followed by three final tranches of SDR966 million.