21 may 2010 12:51
IMF may lend Ukraine less than asked - Tihipko
Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tihipko supposed that the amount of the IMF loan may be less than requested by the Ukrainian side ($19 billion). He said this during the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Zagreb.
Tihipko attributed this to the realistic nature of the state budget adopted at the end of April 2010, and the fact that the receipt of taxes in the budget increased by more than 30% in April compared to the same month last year. "This is a good indicator, because the budget provides for a growth (revenue) of 22%, and we must show that we are able to do so," he said.
First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Iryna Akimova during the annual meeting of the EBRD announced that Kyiv hopes to successfully complete soon the difficult negotiations with the International Monetary Fund over a loan worth about $19 billion. "The negotiations are not easy, but I think that we are moving towards success," she said adding that "they may be (completed) in the near future."
"We need money not only for the IMF to prop up the economy, we need it as a signal to the international community that the situation in Ukraine is improving," Akimova noted.
Ukraine is awaiting this week the arrival of the IMF mission, which will review the Government's ability to fulfill the parameters of the state budget, which, inter alia, provides for external loans, including both Eurobonds worth $1.3 billion and an IMF loan of $2.0 billion.
The Verkhovna Rada approved the state budget with a deficit of 5.3% of the gross domestic product, having complied with IMF's previously promulgated requirement of 6%.
Earlier, government officials repeatedly said that they hoped to get the first money from the IMF before the end of the first half-year.
UKRINFORM