G7 Ambassadors Stress the Need for Ukraine to Accomplish IMF Reforms
KYIV (Sputnik) — G7 countries’ ambassadors stressed the importance of Ukraine fulfilling all International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions in order for the country to receive its next IMF loan installment, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Ambassador Jan Tombinski said Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held a meeting with ambassadors from countries that are part of the G7 group to discuss the future of the Ukrainian government. The ambassadors to Ukraine from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan had been invited to meet Poroshenko and Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to also discuss Ukraine’s stalling reforms.
Ukraine must “accomplish everything and fulfill all of the clauses that Ukraine has discussed with the IMF in order to open financing possibilities,” Tombinski said, as quoted by the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency.
Tombinski added that the meeting also focused on the risks Ukraine would face in case the country failed to secure the IMF loan.
In March 2015, the IMF approved a four-year $17.5-billion assistance package for Ukraine to revive the country’s economy and encourage a series of reforms. Kyiv has already received two tranches under the financial-aid program. On January 21, Poroshenko announced that Kyiv expected to receive the next tranche from the fund in February.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian Economic Development Minister Aivaras Abromavicius announced that he would resign from his post, because of important reform were blocked systematically “at a political level” in Ukraine.
The economic situation in Ukraine has been steadily deteriorating since February 2014 when a new government came to power in what some consider a coup. The country’s GDP fell by 6.8 percent in 2014, while inflation soared to 24.9 percent. According to IMF projections for 2015, Ukraine’s GDP was expected to contract by 9-11 percent with inflation standing at 46 percent.