IMF chief Georgieva arrives in Kiev

MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva arrived in Kiev on Monday for a brief visit, Ukrainian media reported, citing sources.

"She made a stopover in Kiev on her way to India for a meeting of G20 finance ministers. The visit is expected to last one day," a source said.

The information about Georgieva's visit was also confirmed by deputy of the European Solidarity faction Alexei Goncharenko on social media.

At the same time, there is no official information about the IMF managing director's visit to the Ukrainian capital yet.

As reported, Ukraine, amid the IMF's unwillingness to immediately allocate substantial funding last fall, requested a four-month Program Monitoring with Board involvement (PMB) from the Fund, which the Fund approved on December 20.

The IMF mission ended in Warsaw last Friday with a statement that a staff-level agreement (SLA) had been reached to complete this program ahead of schedule and shift to drafting a new, expanded program involving funding. This agreement is still subject to approval by the Fund's Board of Directors.

Kiev hopes that the PMB will be replaced by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) as early as at the beginning of Q2 2023, which could partially bridge the gap in covering the $38 billion deficit in the 2023 state budget, which is currently about $10 billion.