The World Bank`s Board of Directors will consider the provision of a $500 million loan guarantee for Ukraine on October 18, according to a tentative schedule, the bank`s representative office told UNIAN.
The guarantee will be used to raise funds for natural gas purchases for the 2016-2017 heating season. The Bank also said that any decision taken by the Board of Directors would be immediately made public.
Earlier, Director of the World Bank for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Satu Kahkonen confirmed that the World Bank would make a decision regarding the $500 million guarantee ”in the near future”.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine launched negotiations with the World Bank on the provision of loan funds to carry out gas purchases in spring this year. By the summer 2016, the main stage of negotiations was completed, but the decision on the provision of guarantees was conditional on Kyiv`s progress of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In mid-September the IMF resumed lending to Ukraine after more than a year`s break and decided to disburse a third loan tranche to the tune of $1 billion under a four-year Extended Fund Facility, approved in March 2015.
