Ukraine will turn to the International Monetary Fund for additional financing to cover the needs of the state budget. This was announced by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Svyridenko, informs Bloomberg.
According to Svyridenko, to date, international donors have provided only half of the $75 billion needed by Ukraine to support the budget over the next two years. The current IMF program of about $16 billion expires in 2027, but given the uncertainty over the duration of the war, negotiations on a new arrangement could begin as early as August during a planned review of the program.
“If the base case scenario is a continuation of the war next year, we will probably have a new IMF program,” – said Svyridenko.
She clarified that economic and defense forecasts will be discussed during the August visit of the fund’s representatives in order to assess the expediency and parameters of a possible new program.
The Prime Minister announced that in the coming days she intends to hold remote negotiations with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant regarding possible financial assistance. In addition, the new government plans to strengthen cooperation with the United States in the field of defense procurement – in particular, regarding Patriot air defense systems and joint drone production projects, with the possibility of building production facilities in the United States.
Negotiations on the new program are expected to begin this year. The current program, approved two years ago, became unprecedented, because the IMF agreed for the first time to provide financing to a country in a state of active war. Svyridenko also promised that by the end of the year, the government will fulfill all obligations within the framework of the current IMF program and the European mechanism Ukraine Facility, in particular, in the fight against corruption.
