NBU: Adoption of 2017 national budget gives Ukraine good chances to get fourth IMF EFF tranche

The nationalization of PrivatBank and the adoption of the bill on the national budget for 2017 would help Ukraine to count on the receiving of the fourth tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program funded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Deputy Board Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleh Churiy has said.

"After the adoption of the budget Ukraine has good chances to receive the fourth tranche from the IMF," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

"Of course, this would happen next year," Churiy said.

The four-year EFF program for Ukraine totaling SDR 12.348 billion (about $17 billion at a current exchange rates), opened by the IMF in March 2015, originally foresaw quarterly revisions of the program, as well as the issue of four tranches to Kyiv in 2015, and reduction of quarterly tranches in 2016-2018.

However, Ukraine was able to get only the first two tranches and then there was a time gap due to the political crisis and the government change. Negotiations on renewal of funding were resumed after the appearance of a new Cabinet headed by Volodymyr Groysman in April. The IMF provided the third tranche amounting to $1 billion in the middle of September. According to the revised schedule, it was planned to provide next tranches every quarter, in particular, the fourth tranche of $1.3 billion was to arrive in the middle of November 2016.

However, Ukraine lags behind the schedule to meet efficiency benchmarks outlined in the memorandum on the economic and financial policy revised when the country received the third tranche.