NBU head leaves for Vienna to hold talks with IMF mission

MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax) - Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Andrei Pyshny will hold talks in the coming days with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission on Ukraine, which started working in Vienna the day before, Ukrainian media reported, citing Pyshny's post on social media.

A number of employees of the National Bank who are members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have already been holding talks with the mission, he said.

The NBU head, who was approved for the position by the Verkhovna Rada on October 7, also said that he chaired his first MPC meeting on Tuesday.

As reported, last week, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that the IMF team jointly with the Ukrainian team immediately after the IMF and World Bank annual meeting, which ended last weekend, would work on determining the macroeconomic framework and budget of Ukraine.

The successful performance of the mission is expected to set the parameters for starting work on a new monitoring program involving the IMF Board of Directors, which will be the basis for a full-fledged program of cooperation with the IMF. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that a new full-fledged IMF program for Ukraine could be elaborated early next year.

"We hope to reach agreements on macroeconomic indicators, parameters of the state budget for 2023 and sources to cover its deficit, which will be the start of work on a new program with the Fund," Pyshny said, commenting on the mission.

Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko said that the government estimates the need to fund the state budget deficit in 2023 at $3 billion to $4 billion per month, compared with $5 billion per month in 2022, which Ukraine has never managed to raise.

Ukraine's draft state budget for 2023, which was passed in the first reading, envisions external financing of the deficit at $38 billion, or about $3.2 billion a month, including $15 billion from the IMF.