Ukraine needs new $5-10 bln program with IMF - NBU

"The National Bank believes that Ukraine needs a new long-term program of cooperation with the IMF for a total amount of $ 5-10 billion," the NBU wrote on its Facebook page on Thursday, quoting Sologub as saying in an interview with the Central European Financial Observer.

The first tranche of the new IMF program, according to NBU forecasts, may arrive by the end of this year. The NBU expects it to be about $2 billion. Approximately the same amounts can be expected in 2020-2021.

"The new IMF program is, first and foremost, a positive signal for investors and international partners of Ukraine, an indicator of continued reforms. The current level of international reserves is sufficient for the National Bank to smooth out excessive fluctuations in the foreign exchange market and fulfill the government's commitments. The commitments that Ukraine will undertake under the new program will unlikely be very different from those that were included in previous agreements," the NBU said.

It added that international partners expect Ukraine to carry out, first and foremost, anti-corruption, judicial and land reform, as well as continue the balanced fiscal policy and reduce the share of overdue loans in the banking system.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a meeting with IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton in Toronto in early July that cooperation with the International Monetary Fund remains a priority for the Ukrainian authorities.

A new financing program negotiated by Ukraine with the IMF can be concluded for three years.

The current Stand-By Arrangement was approved at the end of 2018 and is expected to last for 14 months. It provided for the allocation of three tranches. On December 21, 2018, Ukraine received the first IMF tranche under this program.

op