IMF announces three new conditions for Ukraine to continue financing

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced three new mandatory conditions, or "structural beacons", for Ukraine to continue financing. The head of the Verkhovna Rada's finance committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, said this on 21 December.

He specified that it is about the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program.

"Under the sixth revision of the EFF program, Ukraine updated the memorandum on economic and financial policy. Three new structural beacons have appeared. <...> Structural beacons are strict commitments on reforms with deadlines, which are assumed by the borrower during the implementation of the IMF program," he wrote in his Telegram channel.

The IMF demanded the preparation of a strategy for the securities and stock market regulator, the introduction of a bill on third-party risks in the financial sector, as well as the organization of an external audit of the regulator in the field of energy and utilities (NKREKU), Getmantsev explained.

He said that now the so-called structural beacons for Ukraine have become 51, of which 34 conditions have been met, five of which were late.

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Earlier, on December 20, the IMF Board of Directors approved the allocation of the next tranche of $1.1 billion to Kiev under the Extended Credit Facility (EFF) approved in March 2023.

Before that, on November 13, Verkhovna Rada MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said that the Ukrainian budget had received more than $100bn in international aid from Western countries since February 2022.

In her turn, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on 2 November that Ukraine would be in Western bondage for dozens of years and pay for the debts with its residents and territories.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine against the background of Russia's special operation to protect Donbas, which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 24 February 2022 after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.