Page 35 - bne IntelliNews Ukraine Country Report May 2017

6.1.1 Budget dynamics - funding & privatization
Ukraine could place a new round of Eurobonds as soon as this coming autumn , Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal on April 20. The worth of the potential placement would be around $1bn (€0.93bn), he said. According to Danylyuk, the next International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan tranche, estimated at $2bn, could be extended to Ukraine in June or July, following parliamentary approval of pension reform and the launch of a farmland market.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 3 approved the release of a $1bn tranche to Ukraine under its troubled $17.5bn aid package, citing the gradual recovery of the economy but calling for deeper reforms and more results against corruption. This will bring the total disbursements under the IMF financing arrangement to $8.38bn since its inception in March 2015.
“The Ukrainian economy is showing welcome signs of recovery ,” David Lipton, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, said in a statement. “Growth is returning, inflation has been brought down, and international reserves have doubled. This progress owes much to the authorities’ decisive policy actions, including sound macroeconomic policies.”
However, “Corruption needs to be tackled decisively. Despite the creation of new anti-corruption institutions, concrete results have yet to be achieved,” Lipton said. He also emphasised the need to accelerate structural reforms and boost investments, and to start in earnest with privatisation and developing a market for agricultural land.
Kyiv is expecting a total of four tranches from the IMF this year in exchange for the government tackling corruption and implementing reforms.
35 RUSSIA Country Report April 2017 www.intellinews.com