IMF to conduct first EFF review mission in Ukraine in late May

MOSCOW. May 12 (Interfax) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will conduct the first mission to review the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program with Ukraine at the end of May, IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said at a press briefing in Washington.

"We do expect the first review mission to take place later in May," Kozack said.

The mission will focus on assessing the progress that the Ukrainian government has made in meeting the policy commitments and conditionality under the IMF program, particularly as regards fiscal policy, corporate governance and monetary exchange rate policy, she said.

"Of course, the review will also take into account the recent economic and financial developments and update the outlook and risks to the economy, both under what we call the baseline scenario, but also in the case of Ukraine, we have a down side scenario," Kozack said

The Ukrainian authorities have made a very strong commitment for advancing critical legislative changes, Kozack said. These include enacting a law to restore the asset declaration obligations of public officials, and that is expected by end July, amending the anti-money-laundering framework and law by end September, and adopting legislation to enhance the institutional autonomy of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office by the end of December, she said.

As reported, the IMF Executive Board on March 31 approved a four-year EFF of SDR11.6 billion (about $15.6 billion). After the disbursement of the first tranche, the program's schedule envisions providing three more tranches SDR664 million, or $893 million, each in mid-June and October of this year and in late February 2024 following the first, second and third reviews, which will evaluate Ukraine's progress in fulfilling its commitments with deadlines at the end of April, June and December, 2023, respectively.