Thursday, October 16, 2008

Talks between IMF, Cabinet of Ministers and NBU to take place in Kyiv

A delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), representatives from the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will hold talks on the endorsement of a plan weakening the negative influence of the global financial crisis on Ukraine during a meeting in Kyiv on Thursday.

The NBU is interested in cheap loans of the fund, the amount of which can be USD 15 billion.

Experts believe that the allocation of money will be accompanied with tough conditions.

IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine Balazs Horvath said that the fund would study Ukraine's latest economic reforms and achievements and which support the country needs to settle a difficult situation. "There is still no crisis, but we should predict all scenarios," he said.

Ukraine is now cooperating with the IMF in a regime of talks. According to the Finance Minsitry, Ukraine's debt to the IMF was USD 247.9 million by September 1 and the country should clear this debt by 2009.

Horvath said in late September that despite the difficult economic situation in the country, the government would cope with it without raising loans at the IMF. Two weeks later, Ukraine joined a list of countries, to which the IMF is ready to provide loans to tackle the financial crisis.