IMF Mission will come to Ukraine April 7? (Update)

Technical IMF Mission will come to Ukraine April 7 as the press office of the Ministry of Finance reports. The mission will be busy with drafting a new memorandum with the new government of Ukraine and prepare the grounds for the IMF mission to come to the country for negotiations.

UPD. However there were news on TV that the IMF mission will not come to town on April 7 as the Ministry of Finance has said that it is too early to discuss the IMF missions to Kyiv.

IMF to pay wages and pensions?

Kommersant Ukraine newspaper sources tells that although IMF will not issue next tranche to Ukraine prior to presidential elections there might a compromise of another nature with Ukrainian authorities. The money that IMF has already transferend to National Bank of Ukraine may be transfered to the government to finance the budget deficit. The last tranche from IMF in that way will be redistributed to pay for wages of state employees as well as other social payments from the budget instead of being used for support of the financial sector.

IMF witholds financing to Ukraine

As UR has already pointed out in November there will be no financing from IMF to Ukraine until after the presidential campaign. IMF grew tired of Ukraine's lies, willingess to use money for financing electoral promises, no budget and discord between president and prime minister. USD 3.5 bn should have been transfered to Ukraine as a part of a USD 16.8 bn loan, but now that tranche is on hold.

As Judy Dempsey writes in NYT until there be consensus among elite in Ukraine there will be no financing from IMF and that basically means until after the presidential elections. Ms. Pazarbasioglu previously heading missions to Ukraine is now likely to step down, apparently being tired of dealing with Ukrainian leadership.

Although Mr. Strauss-Kahn has quite frankly said in November that there will be no co-operation with Ukraine until the end of the presidential campaign, Ukrainian authorities played it in a way that the tranche was going to be paid. However, that game did not seem to succeed afterall. 

IMF halts financing Ukraine till the end of presidential race

IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said to Reuters that the fund was unlikely to continue cooperation with Ukraine until after the Jan. 17 election for president. Ministry of Finance of Ukraine supposedly plans to sell SDR 800 mln out of SDR 1,309 bn that it has already received from the fund in order to finance the budget deficit. NBU representatives assure that the currency exchange rate of Hryvnia will be stable at least by the end of the year.