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Department of the IMF, the IMF will continue interacting with the Ukrainian authorities in the coming weeks for the second review of the EFF's extended financing program. "Our overall assessment is that the program continues to perform well," she said. Ramakrishnan noted that several short-term priorities are being implemented, including the passage of the budget and some government measures. According to her, the resumption of the IMF's permanent representation in Ukraine this week will help expand and deepen interaction with various stakeholders. The four-year EFF program was approved on March 31 this year, and the first tranche of $2.7B was allocated in April. The planned schedule of the program provides the allocation of three more tranches of $873M to Ukraine. Kyiv should receive the third and fourth tranches in February and October next year when Ukraine's fulfillment of its commitments is assessed.
The EBRD wants to invest about €1.5B in Ukraine annually. For this purpose, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is working on a plan to increase its capital, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso said. The bank said in May that it plans to ask shareholders to raise capital by up to €5B by the end of this year. The war, she said, is moving Ukraine away from its traditional dependence on heavy manufacturing, which Russia has targeted, to the technology and digital solutions it uses in the military industry. Energy will move towards renewable sources, and agriculture will remain an essential industry. "We're doing everything we can to facilitate these investments and see how we can support any development project," Renault-Basso said. The EBRD has already noticed private investor interest in Ukraine. She added that the money is currently being invested to restore logistics capabilities, relocate operations, and rebuild what has been destroyed.
Brussels will unfreeze €13B for Hungary to help Ukraine. The European Commission is preparing to release about €13B in EU funds by the end of November. This step will ensure Budapest's support in increasing the bloc's budget and providing significant financial assistance to Ukraine, the FT writes. Unblocking funds frozen since December 2022 would mark a victory for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who promised not to agree to any increase in the EU budget until his country gets access to these funds. Last year, the EU froze €22B for Hungary after concluding that the government was not complying with human rights conventions and the rule of law. In May, Hungary implemented a judicial reform that would allow the European Commission to unlock €13B. However, the European Parliament is likely to condemn this move. And while the body cannot block payments, it can delay a potential deal to increase the EU's budget. Meanwhile, Ukraine is working to persuade Hungary to unblock €500M in military support after excluding the Hungarian OTP Bank from the list of international sponsors of the war.
The small economies of Europe provide the largest share of their GDP to Ukraine. CNN analyzed the international aid that countries have supplied to Ukraine and found that Norway and the Baltic states have allocated the largest share of their gross domestic product. As the analysis emphasizes, many of the smaller economies of Ukraine's European allies have given Ukraine a larger share of their GDP than the US has. It is reported that the US has allocated the largest overall amount of assistance to Ukraine (military, financial, and humanitarian) - about $113B. The European Union has provided a total of about $85.1B, which does not include the contributions of individual EU member states, which are considered separately. At the same time, Washington's contribution to military aid to Ukraine is 0.3% of the US GDP,
58 UKRAINE Country Report November 2023 www.intellinews.com