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Eastern Europe
July 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
"If so, the IMF won’t provide any tranche before official approval of Ukraine’s 2019 budget (which, as tradition, is unlikely to be earlier than in De- cember)," the expert added. "In turn, in Decem- ber, it might be too late for the IMF to sign a memorandum with Ukraine’s top officials, given that many of them could be out of office by the end of March, when presidential elections are held. That would not be enough time to imple- ment IMF requirements."
Bringing gas prices for households to import parity level (hiking the domestic prices to at least cover the cost of imported gas) is among the three remaining requirements from the IMF to approve the review of its $17.5bn support programme with Ukraine and provide a fifth loan tranche under the programme.
Ukraine promised to adjust gas prices a year ago, and in March 2017 the Cabinet even approved
a resolution stipulating adjustment of prices to import parity as of October 2017, which enabled Ukraine to pass the IMF's programme review
and receive a $1bn loan tranche from the IMF in April. Since then however, the cabinet in Kyiv has
Russian government to support domestic wine producers
Ben Aris in Berlin
Maybe you wouldn't believe it but Russia produces some really world class wines, and now the gov- ernment is intending to promote its viniculture and would like to follow countries like Georgia into the international markets.
refused to implement its resolution, keeping gas rates for households unchanged up until now.
"If Ukraine does not reach any deal with the IMF staff this week (or next week, at the latest), the chance to get the IMF tranche under the existing programme (that officially expires in March 2019) will be very low," Paraschiy added. "The next programme with the IMF (if any) will be possible only in very late 2019, after planned parliamentary elections in Ukraine."
Failure to get the tranche from the IMF will mean no complimentary loans from the EU from a new €1bn macro-financial assistance (MFA) programme (a €500mn tranche has been already approved, but its disbursement is conditional on the IMF loan tranche approval) and from the World Bank (up to $800mn loan, as estimated by Ukraine’s central bank).
Ukraine has received $8.4bn from the IMF so
far under the lender's support programme, helping Kyiv to recovery from Russia's attempts to destroy its economy via the Crimea annexation and military intervention in the Donbas region. Over the past years, Kyiv also issued a set of Eurobonds under US guarantees.
Russia produces a few world class wines.
The best wine region is around the Anapa lake
in Krasnodar that is home to the former impe- rial vineyards of Abrau-Durso that now belong to presidential Ombudsman for Business Boris Titov. The grapes and the technology were brought back