NBU expects IMF mission to start working in Ukraine next week

MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) - An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, whose positive conclusions will pave the way for developing a new program with the IMF, is expected to start working in Ukraine next week, Ukrainian media said, citing National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Andrei Pyshny.

"We expect the IMF mission to begin working as early as next week. We hope to achieve agreements on macro-economic indicators, parameters for the 2023 state budget and sources to cover its deficit - steps that will give a start to work on a new program with the fund," Ukrainian media quoted Pyshny as saying in a statement circulated by the NBU press service.

Pyshny also thanked the IMF for disbursing $1.3 billion in additional emergency funding as part of the Rapid Financing Instrument. Ukraine received the money on Thursday.

As reported, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that as soon as this week's annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank are over, the fund's team together with a team from Ukraine will start working on a comprehensive macro-economic framework and a budget of Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, in turn, said that the IMF's new full-fledged program for Ukraine could be ready at the beginning of next year.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko, for his part, said that the government estimates the country's financing needs at $3.5 billion a month in 2023, as compared to $5 billion a month in 2022, which Ukraine never managed to raise. The best such result was $4.6 billion in August. The overall amount of foreign funding received by Ukraine over nearly eight months, namely since the start of the crisis, stands at $20.7 billion, almost 50% of which are grants.

Ukraine's draft budget for 2023, which has been approved in the first reading, estimates the country's needs for foreign financing at $38 billion, or around $3.2 billion a month.