The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, arrived in Kyiv early on Thursday for high-level talks, Reuters reports, citing two sources familiar with the matter, writes UNN.
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The IMF Managing Director is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, and NBU Governor Andriy Pyshnyi, as well as business leaders during her trip, one of the sources said.
The details of Georgieva's visit to Ukraine were kept secret due to security concerns. The head of the IMF, who has close family ties to Ukraine, last visited the country in February 2023. Georgieva's brother is married to a woman from Ukraine and was in Kharkiv, the second-largest city, when Russia invaded, the publication writes.
In November, Ukraine and the IMF reached a preliminary agreement on a four-year, $8.2 billion lending program, which is contingent on several actions, including budget approval and donor financing guarantees. IMF officials say Ukraine has made progress and expect the issue to be considered by the board of directors within weeks.
Approval of the financing is critical as it will unlock additional external investments needed to cover Ukraine's financial deficit, which the IMF estimates at about $136.5 billion through 2029, given the ongoing war.
The war has severely impacted the Ukrainian economy, and the country plans to spend the bulk of its government revenue – 2.8 trillion hryvnias, or about 27.2% of GDP – on financing its defense efforts in 2026.
Georgieva will review Ukraine's progress in a number of areas, including the adoption of the 2026 budget, measures to increase domestic revenues by broadening the tax base, and securing large-scale external donor financing on grant-like terms.
Announcing the preliminary agreement, the IMF said that Ukrainian authorities also agreed to accelerate efforts to prevent tax evasion and avoidance, including by taxing income earned through digital platforms, closing customs loopholes for certain imports, and eliminating value-added tax exemptions.
The IMF expects Ukraine to introduce some of these measures to parliament but does not anticipate an increase in revenues until 2027.
In addition to working to "de-shadow" the economy, which has a high level of informal businesses without balance sheets, Ukraine has also pledged to maintain the independence of anti-corruption institutions and correct loopholes in the current labor code.
Last month, Ukraine reached a major milestone in bridging its financial gaps when EU leaders agreed to lend it 90 billion euros ($105 billion) for two years. Ukraine only has to service the loan if Russia pays reparations after the war ends, meaning it will not be a burden on the budget.
A $2.6 billion debt restructuring linked to economic growth was also completed, easing pressure on Kyiv, which had warned that these instruments could cost up to $20 billion by 2041.
The new IMF program will replace the current four-year, $15.5 billion program, of which about $10.6 billion has been disbursed, which assumed the war would end in 2025.
The new preliminary agreement assumes the war will end this year but includes a "negative scenario" in which the war slowly fades and does not end until 2028.