The presidential secretariat hopes for the talks with
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the second
tranche to Ukraine to be held next week, Oleksandr Shlapak told a briefing on Monday.
He told journalists that Ukraine had violated the terms of its
agreement signed with the IMF last year. In particular, he said the country had failed to retain its budget indicator at the level of
1% of GDP and to adopt a deficit-free budget in 2009. Shlapak said that the government directly intervened in the
constitutional powers of the National Bank of Ukraine due to the
adoption by the parliament of the law on the state budget and added
that it had failed to stabilize the situation on the currency market.
“These are major claims presented by the IMF to Ukraine,” Shlapak said,
adding that late in January this year, when an IMF mission was on a
visit to Ukraine, no agreement was reached on the settlement of these
problems.
He said that in order to continue cooperation with the IMF, it is
necessary to have a single and agreed position between government
agencies and concerned institutes.
Shlapak said that the International Monetary Fund is ready to
conduct another review of its loan program with Ukraine taking into
account the way the situation changed compared to October 2008. He said
that the fund's mission insisted that a number of important issues be
taken into account.
He said that this week, serious talks would be held with the
government and the National Bank so that Ukraine's single position is
adopted in talks with the IMF. Shlapak said that the country's
leadership would then participate in a council to agree this position.
