IMF should soon approve a new loan to Ukraine

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should meet "quickly" after December 10 its executive committee for the approval of a program of aid to Ukraine, said Wednesday its CEO Christine Lagarde. The head of the Washington institution announced in a written statement that she had a conversation Wednesday with the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, who has just announced the imposition of martial law for a period of 30 days in response escalating conflict with Russia.

Christine Lagarde does not mention the tensions between Ukraine and Russia but she reaffirms "the positive and cooperative relationship between Ukraine and the IMF". In mid-October, the IMF granted a new loan of $ 3.9 billion to Kiev, which is emerging from a severe economic crisis and is facing significant debt maturities by 2020.

The head of the Fund stresses that "all the previous measures (the green light of this loan) should be completed by the Ukrainian authorities by December 10 and a meeting of the steering committee should be held soon after that".

The Ukrainian parliament adopted Friday the budget for 2019 after a night of heated debate over the conditions required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to continue its financial assistance. This budget provides for a deficit of about 2.3% of gross domestic product.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Oksana Markarova assured MPs that this "balanced and realistic" budget would "allow the year 2019 to begin in earnest".