23 May 2023 12:54

IMF mission begins review of Ukraine's fulfillment of EFF

MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) - An International Monetary Fund mission on Tuesday begins the first review of the Extended Fund Facility with Ukraine, Ukrainian media said, citing IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine Vahram Stepanyan said.

"The IMF mission led by Gavin Gray is beginning discussions today with Ukrainian authorities on measures in the context of the first review of the Extended Financing Facility," he said without giving other details.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said on Telegram yesterday that he had discussed the mission's reviews with Director of the European Department at the IMF Alfred Kammer and that the review would take place in Vienna.

IMF Director of Communications Julie Kozack said during a briefing in Washington that the mission would 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.

"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.

Kozack said the authorities had made a very strong commitment to enhance governance and expressed clear timetables for advancing critical legislative changes. 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.

The IMF Executive Board on March 31 approved a four-year EFF of SDR11.6 billion or 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.