National Bank of Ukraine governor to participate in IMF, World Bank meeting in Washington

MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax) - Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Andrei Pyshny and his deputy Sergei Nikolaychuk have left on a working visit to Washington as part of the Ukrainian official delegation, Ukrainian media reported, citing the NBU information on social media.

"The purpose of the visit is to participate in the Annual Spring Meeting of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank Group, hold bilateral meetings with international partners," the message reads.

The NBU governor will discuss the implementation of the provisions of the Memorandum with the IMF, as well as the steps required to bolster Ukraine's resilience and rapid post-crisis economic recovery, it said.

During the visit, a number of meetings with the management of the IMF, WB, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, U.S. Treasury, European Central Bank and the heads of the European central banks are scheduled to take place, the NBU said.

As reported, the IMF and WB spring meeting will take place from April 10 to 16 this year. As part of the meeting, the third ministerial roundtable to support Ukraine with the participation of IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and WB President David Malpass as well as Prime Minister Denis Shmygal will take place on April 12.

Besides, the Ukrainian delegation traditionally includes Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko, whom the WB and IMF Board of Governors elected chair for 2023 at its fall meeting in October 2022.

"The international community stands united to support the people of Ukraine, including by providing critical humanitarian, recovery and reconstruction assistance," Ukrainian media quoted a message on the WB website.

The first meeting of this roundtable took place at the spring meeting of the IMF and the WB on April 21, 2022, and the second meeting took place at its fall meeting on October 12.

At the first meeting, the IMF head said that Ukraine's monthly needs in 2022 to finance the state budget deficit amid the crisis are $5 billion.

At the second meeting, Zelensky proposed that the world financial community take three urgent steps to support Ukraine: create the Donor Coordination Platform for Ukraine, also referred to informally as Financial Ramstein, provide economic recovery and assistance to Ukrainians, and elaborate a mechanism to support investment and its insurance.

The updated 2023 Ukrainian state budget envisages foreign financing of the deficit at about $42 billion, or about $3.5 billion a month. Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko has recently noted that reaching an agreement with the IMF on a four-year $15.6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program allows for a resolution of the problem of financing the state budget deficit in 2023, and the current priority will be to find funds for reconstruction. This is one of his main tasks at the upcoming spring meetings of the IMF and the WB, he said.

The minister said that of the $14 billion needed in 2023 for rapid recovery, which was verified by the World Bank jointly with the Ukrainian government, the European Commission and the United Nations, the state budget provides for about $3.3 billion, while the remaining funds are supposed to be raised with the assistance of international partners.