WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund said on Saturday it had reached an agreement in principle with Ukraine on a new $5.5 billion, three-year aid programme for the war-scarred country. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva welcomed the deal, adding it was subject to IMF management approval.
Georgieva said she spoke by telephone on Saturday to President Volodymyr Zelensky and commended him on “impressive progress” on reforms and “sound economic policies.”
“The President and I agreed that Ukraine’s economic success depends crucially on strengthening the rule of law, enhancing the integrity of the judiciary, and reducing the role of vested interests,” she said.
She added that it was “paramount to safeguard the gains made in cleaning up the banking system and recover the large costs to the taxpayers from bank resolutions.” The IMF and other international donors have repeatedly pressed Kiev to attract much-needed investment by addressing pervasive corruption and reducing the power of oligarchs.
But bankers and analysts said they fear the current authorities are targeting former bankers who have helped clean up the market instead of the oligarch owners of banks that go bankrupt.
Georgieva said that the effectiveness of the new programme would be “conditional on the implementation of a set of prior actions.” Ukrainian lawmakers in November authorised an increase in defence spending to record levels as Zelensky vows to end the country’s long conflict with Russian-backed separatists. Approving the 2020 budget, lawmakers voted for a 16 per cent increase in both defence and security spending, bringing it to nearly $10 billion, or 5.45 per cent of gross domestic product.
At his inauguration in May, the 41-year-old president urged people with Ukrainian heritage to return home and help build a “new, strong and successful Ukraine.”
The country is also in the spotlight due to the impeachment proceedings against US President Donald Trump. Trump is accused of abusing his office by pressuring Ukraine to find dirt on former US vice president Joe Biden, his potential challenger in the 2020 election. — AFP
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