Myroslava Naumchuk
/ soc-set.com
The European Union has promised Ukraine to
imminently allocate the next tranche of its macro-financial assistance worth
EUR 600 million; the IMF has confirmed that is in the final stage of the review
of Ukrainian cooperation program; while the State Statistics Service reported
on the acceleration of economic growth and inflation - these are the key
economic news of the past week.
The second week of February brought some
good news for Ukraine, which is emerging from the crisis. During his meeting
with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker said that the European Union in the coming weeks was ready
to provide for Ukraine its second tranche of macro-financial assistance in the
amount of EUR 600 million. At the same time, Juncker has reminded that the
European Union wishes to finally see Ukraine abolish a ten-year ban on the export
of round timber, introduced in 2015.
However, this time
this barrier did not become an insurmountable obstacle for the allocation of a
bailout.
Ukraine’s largest trading partner, the
European Union in April 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity, had declared its
readiness to provide financial assistance to Kyiv, totaling EUR 11 billion
euros: EUR 1.6 billion in loans, EUR 1.4 billion in grants, and another EUR 5
billion - from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as
EUR 3 billion - from the European Investment Bank.
As part of the loan program, Ukraine received
a total of EUR 600 million euros. And in 2015, the EU has offered us a new
package of aid credit totaling EUR 1.8 billion. Under this program, Ukraine has
also received EUR 600 million.
However, the allocation of the next credit
tranches has been suspended. It seems that Groysman managed to break the ice,
convincing the leadership of our strategic partner that Ukraine was committed
to reform.
The country’s key creditor, the
International Monetary Fund, is also expecting the acceleration of
economic reforms in Ukraine.
On February 9, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice
confirmed that the Fund expected to hold a meeting of the Executive Board on
Ukraine in the near future. He said that the Fund had held discussions with the
Ukrainian authorities and there were some technical issues that should be
addressed.
But soon they will be solved, he said.
Thus, there is hope that the Ukrainian authorities will be able to break the
vicious practice of previous years, when the program with the IMF stopped
working after Kyiv received one or two tranches. Since March 2015, Ukraine has
received three loan tranches totaling $7.62 billion of the promised $17.5
billion under a four-year EFF.
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