Canada disburses $773 mln low-interest loan to Ukraine via IMF account - Ukrainian Finance Ministry

MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax) - The state budget of Ukraine has received a low-interest loan of 1 billion Canadian dollars (CAD), equivalent to $773 million, from Canada, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said on Friday.

The loan maturity is ten years, while the interest rate is 1.69% per annum.

"These are the first funds that Ukraine has received through the mechanism of the administered account of the International Monetary Fund [IMF]," the Finance Ministry said in a press release.

As reported, the IMF in April 2022 decided to set up an administered account for donations in the form of a share of Special Drawing Rights from donor countries for Ukraine. All funds raised through this account will be spent on maintaining Ukraine's financial stability through grants and loans.

Canada disbursed this money on June 9.

The Ukrainian finance minister said earlier that he expects international financial assistance for Ukraine to increase from $1.5 billion in May to $4.8 billion in June.

This opinion has been backed by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), whose international reserves dropped by around $2 billion to $25.1 billion in May.

"We expect that international assistance in the coming months will be enough to help prevent a decline in the NBU's reserves," NBU Deputy Governor Serhiy Nikolaychuk said a few days ago.