IMF Mission To Visit Ukraine In June For Meetings With Government Officials

The FINANCIAL — A mission from the International Monetary Fund will visit Ukraine in June for meetings with government officials.

Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn announced this at a press conference.

According to Lytvyn, the issue of Ukraine implementation of the memorandum that was sent to the International Monetary Fund in connection with disbursement of the International Monetary Fund's Standby loan was discussed at a meeting attended by President Viktor Yuschenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the leadership of the National Bank of Ukraine, and the leadership of the Finance Ministry.

"A mission from the International Monetary Fund should arrive in June, and if they get here and see that Ukraine is moving forward and implementing this memorandum then we will be speaking of the next tranche [of the Standby loan]," Lytvyn said.

According to him, the Presidential Secretariat's first deputy head Oleksandr Shlapak and the National Security and Defense Council's Secretary Raisa Bohatyriova also attended the meeting.

The participants in the meeting discussed the need to increase the independence of the National Bank of Ukraine and change the functions of the supervisory board of the National Bank of Ukraine.

They also stated the need to amend Ukrainian laws to specify the procedures for recapitalization of banks.

Lytvyn said that Yuschenko drew attention to the situation involving the financial state of the Naftohaz Ukrainy national joint-stock company in his opening speech and stressed that the company's accounts payable amounted to USD 59 billion.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the International Monetary Fund approved on May 8, 2009, disbursement of USD 2.8 billion to Ukraine as the second tranche of the Standby loan.

The International Monetary Fund has said that the second and third tranches of the loan could be the same amount.

The International Monetary Fund approved on November 5 a two-year Stand-by Arrangement worth about USD 16.4 billion for Ukraine to help the Ukrainian authorities restore financial and economic stability and strengthen confidence.

The IMF disbursed USD 4.5 billion to Ukraine on November 10 as the first tranche of the Stand-by loan.