Ukraine has begun repaying the first foreign debt incurred since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. This is the first payment under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) credit line from the International Monetary Fund in the amount of 125.7 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR), which is equivalent to $171 million at the current exchange rate. About this informs Forbes.
In 2022, under the RFI program, Ukraine received a total of 2 billion SDRs (approximately $2.67 billion) in two tranches. Repayment of this amount begins today and will continue until October 2027 – 16 equal payments are provided. Today’s first payment is 6% of the total debt.
In the course of 2025, Ukraine must pay the IMF $3 billion, of which $2.3 billion is to repay the principal debt, and another $0.7 billion is to pay interest. As of today, $1.3 billion of principal debt and about $0.4 billion in interest payments have already been returned. At the same time, from the beginning of 2025, Ukraine received one tranche from the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program in the amount of $0.4 billion. Three more tranches totaling $2 billion are expected by the end of the year.
Financing of the 2026 state budget became one of the main topics discussed by a delegation of Ukrainian high-ranking officials during the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, which took place on April 21-26 in Washington. The talks focused, in particular, on increasing Ukraine’s financial self-sufficiency, including a possible increase in tax revenues — this was reported by three meeting participants.
It will be recalled that on March 28, the Board of Directors of the IMF approved the seventh revision of the EFF program and approved the eighth tranche of $0.4 billion for Ukraine. The updated Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policy contains four new structural beacons: an independent review of the work of the NCCPFR, an update of the procedures for the selection and appointment of members of the supervisory boards of state-owned enterprises, the development of a joint plan of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Customs and the Ministry of Taxation for the implementation of the updated IT strategy, as well as the adoption of sectoral strategies for the management of public investments.
