Ukraine expands cooperation with the IMF through a new $65 million fund
Kyiv • UNN
The Government of Ukraine and the IMF launched the Ukraine Capacity Building Facility with $65 million in funding from donor countries to strengthen Ukraine's institutional capacity and support economic reforms.
Ukraine's government is expanding cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by launching the Ukraine Capacity Development Fund with a target budget of $65 million, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday, UNN reports.
Details
The IMF-administered Ukraine Capacity Development Fund (UCDF) reportedly started operations on February 13.
Ukrainian authorities, development partners, and IMF experts discussed priority steps to strengthen Ukraine's capacity under the new Fund.
It is also reported that the UCDF work plan was approved today.
"The key areas of the Trust Fund are economic and financial reforms that are consistent with the measures under the IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program. In particular, fiscal reforms, monetary policy, strengthening financial integrity, fighting corruption, and technical assistance on macroeconomic issues," the Ministry of Finance said.
Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko emphasized the importance of strengthening the institutional capacity of the Ukrainian government.
"In the medium term, the target budget of the Ukraine Capacity Development Fund of USD 65 million will help support reforms aimed at ensuring macroeconomic and financial stability, post-war reconstruction and integration into the EU. As of today, donor contributions amount to USD 16.5 million," the Ministry of Finance said.
As noted, the Foundation was supported by the governments of Japan, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ireland.
The First Deputy Minister of Finance Denys Uliutin noted the effective cooperation of the Ministry of Finance with the IMF experts, in particular in the area of public finance management to strengthen the budget base and manage fiscal risks.
"The support should reflect the goals of the Extended Fund Facility program to strengthen government policies and implement comprehensive reforms on Ukraine's path to EU accession," Ulyutin said.
Speaking about the results of the cooperation, he noted that over the past few months, technical support has been focused on the following areas: analysis of financial performance and fiscal risks of key state-owned enterprises, as well as stress testing of their financial performance under various future scenarios. This analysis was published in the report on fiscal risks of the state budget for 2024.
In early December 2023, a mission on medium-term budget planning was held to forecast budget indicators for the medium term. And last week, a mission was held to improve liquidity management to better anticipate and manage financial uncertainty, especially under martial law, the Ministry of Finance said.
