After fulfilling the requirements of an ongoing loan program, Ukraine is expected to receive a $2.2 billion payout from the IMF, the Washington-based financial organization announced on Friday, capping a five-day staff visit to the nation.
The much-needed funds, which are still pending approval by the executive board of the International Monetary Fund, come after Ukraine completed the fourth review of its current four-year IMF loan program, which is estimated to be worth $15.4 billion.
The pact is a component of a $122 billion foreign aid package meant to strengthen Ukraine’s economy in the face of Russia’s ongoing, now well into its third year of invasion.
“Performance under the program has remained strong despite the challenges of the war, with all quantitative performance criteria met, and one structural benchmark met and another implemented with a short delay,” IMF Ukraine mission chief Gavin Gray said in a statement.
According to a recent IMF estimate, Ukraine’s economy has partly recovered after suffering a major blow at the start of the Russian invasion in 2022 and is expected to rise by 3.2 percent this year. In the meantime, inflation has continued to decline.
Just over a month has passed since the US Congress approved a frozen foreign aid package worth $61 billion intended to support Kyiv’s military in their resistance against Russia. This agreement at the staff level of the IMF follows.
“After a challenging period of liquidity strains earlier in the year due to external financing delays, external budget support for 2024 resumed and should continue to be disbursed on a timely basis to help maintain economic stability,” Gray said.
“Fiscal financing needs remain very high in 2024,” he continued, adding that the authorities were making progress on restructuring commercial external debt, which forms part of the IMF-backed reform program.
These reforms are “essential to create space for high priority expenditures and to help bring debt back to sustainable levels,” he said.
