WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said its board would review a staff-level agreement on an $8.1 billion lending program for Ukraine in coming days, paving the way for approval of a package that will help unlock other international support.
If approved, as widely expected, the program would replace an existing $15.5 billion IMF facility, helping Kyiv maintain economic stability and public spending as the war with Russia grinds into a fifth year. Ukraine has said it faces a near $140 billion budget shortfall over the next few years.
The four-year anniversary of the war is February 24. Since Moscow’s invasion, Ukraine has required hundreds of billions of dollars of support from Western governments and institutions and a more than $20 billion sovereign debt restructuring.
IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozack said Ukrainian authorities had now completed the prior actions needed to move forward with their request for a new IMF program, including submission of a draft law on the labor code and adoption of a budget. She told a briefing that Ukraine’s economic growth in 2025 was likely to come in under 2 percent. After four years of war, the country’s economy had settled into a slower growth path with larger fiscal and current account balances, she said, noting that the IMF continues to monitor the situation closely.
