The International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukraine`s key lender, may disburse a fourth tranche to the country under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program by the end of the current year if the reforms conducted by the Ukrainian authorities receive positive assessment.
”Disbursement of the tranche by the end of the year is possible,” IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said at a regular briefing in Washington D.C. on Thursday.
He also said that an assessment mission would be sent by the IMF to Ukraine early in November.
”A mission will visit Kyiv in early November. That will be to conduct the discussions under the third review, but also to conduct the 2016 Article IV Consultation,” Rice told reporters.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the IMF on September 14 announced the completion of the second review of the four-year EFF program of cooperation with Ukraine, adopted in March 2015, and decided to allocate the third loan tranche of $1 billion.
The total amount of funds already disbursed to Ukraine is $7.62 billion of total lending target set at $17.5 billion. The decision to disburse the funds was made after more than a year break in relations between Ukraine and the IMF.
Ukraine expects to obtain another loan tranche within the EFF in the amount of $1.3 billion by the end of the year.
However, to secure more aid, Ukraine will have to present a model of its pension system reform to kick off in 2017, the launch of the land market model, the model of tax legislation changes, including the abolition of the special VAT regime for agribusinesses and the simplified taxation system for legal entities. The IMF will also assess the draft budget for 2017.
