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Weekly Lists
March 31, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
bne:Credit
IMF board to consider new tranche for Ukraine on April 3
The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will on April 3 consider the allocation of the next $1bn tranche of the $17.5bn credit programme, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during a visit to Malta on March 30, his media office said in a statement.
On March 20, the NBU’s monetary policy committee revised its GDP growth forecast for 2017 down from 2.8% to 1.9% due to an official trade blockade of Ukraine’s rebel-held eastern regions. The revision followed the IMF’s decision to delay the release of the $1bn to Ukraine, demanding that the government fully assess the economic cost of the Donbas blockade.
The same day, the IMF’s representative in Kyiv, Jerome Vacher, confirmed that the issue of the third review of Ukraine’s arrangement under the support programme has been included in the April 3 agenda of the Fund’s board. “Completion of the third review will enable the disbursement of about $1bn,” the IMF said in a press release, citing Vacher.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the coun- try’smainanti-graftagency,raidedtheheadquartersoftheNational Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on March 29 as part of a criminal investiga- tion into abuse of power by senior central bank officials in 2015-2016.
The actions will upset the position of Ukraine’s Western backers and donors like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who have hailed NBU governor Valeriya Gontareva as a champion of reform. In the past three years Gontareva and her team have overhauled the fraud-ridden national banking sector, stripping licences from dozens of banks.
NABU operatives seized NBU documents during the raid, the agen- cy said in a statement. The organisation is investigating possible participation of NBU officials in corruption “in the interests of third parties who, in prior agreement with officials of a number of com- mercial banks... caused grave consequences to the state interests”.
Hungary’s Government Debt Management Agency (AKK) sold a combined HUF50bn (€161.9mn) of 3-, 5- and 15-year bonds at an auction on March 30.
The volume was HUF7bn above the original plan. The sovereign raised the offer of 5-year bonds on strong demand and a marked decrease in yields. The average yield on 3- and 15-year bonds also dropped significantly.
Ukrainian anti- corruptionagencyraids central bank in graft probe
Hungary raises bond offer as yields drop