The mission of the International Monetary Fund will begin work in Ukraine on December 21 as part of the review of the current 18-month stand-by financing program in the amount of $5 billion.
This was reported on the official Twitter account of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"I welcome the decision of the IMF to send its mission to Ukraine from December 21 to 23. Due to COVID-19, the mission will communicate online to review the agreement on the stand by program. Ukraine remains a reliable partner of the IMF, because our cooperation benefits the Ukrainian people," Zelensky said in a statement.
In turn, in the statement of the permanent representative of the IMF in Ukraine Yosta Ljungman, it is noted that after the negotiations on December 21-23, the mission plans to resume meetings at the end of the New Year holidays in January 2021.
"Given the circumstances of the COVID pandemic, the mission will hold a remote discussion with the authorities of Ukraine on the latest economic events, as well as measures and reforms necessary to complete the first review," Ljungman noted.
A successful review of the agreement is the basis for granting the next tranche under the program.
As reported, earlier the head of the NBU, Kirill Shevchenko, following the results of his visit to Washington, noted that the IMF will send a mission to Ukraine to consider the next tranche only after a number of issues have been resolved, which are related to the decision of the Constitutional Court, the adoption of the state budget for 2021 and the work of the National Bank.
As a reminder, Ukraine, as part of the 18-month stand-by financing program for SDR3,6 billion ($5 billion), undertook to introduce amendments to the law on banking activities, prepared jointly with the IMF and the World Bank.
In particular, by the end of November 2020, Ukraine planned to introduce requirements to eliminate gaps in respect of reliable corporate governance practices in the context of the recommendations of the Basel Committee 2015 on corporate governance for banks.
In addition, it was envisaged to create conditions for granting the NBU legal powers to calibrate capital and liquidity requirements based on the bank's risk profile, as well as strengthening licensing requirements and requirements for bank shareholders
