The International Monetary Fund are still not satisfied with the Ukrainian reform progress, if they are to send the second tranche to Ukraine.
According to Interfax-Ukraine, IMF Spokesperson Gerry Rice said on a briefing, that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects more progress for the allocation of the second tranche under the Stand-By Arrangement.
Preservation of the independence of the National Bank of Ukraine including flexible exchange rate policy, medium term fiscal stability and the fight against corruption and for improvement of corporate governance remains as the focus.
In June 2020 the first tranche was paid out to Ukraine with the explicit demand that NBU would remain independent. However, not long after the former governor of NBU Yarik Smolii resigned from the position citing political pressure.
Since then, the top management has been slowly but steadily ushered out, and the last two members of the higher management that dates back to Yarik Smolii’s time as governor, are expected to leave the bank when their contracts run out this summer.
President Zelensky has also been saying that he would like to end the flexible exchange rate policy, but nothing has come of it so far. According to Interfax-Ukraine, the most important topics are the law “on the High Council of Justice and the removal of IMF fears regarding interference with the work of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO)”
The Ukrainian government expects a tranche by September. Servant of the People, the party of president Volodimir Zelensky, the government and the major party in the Verkhovna Rada, expects the needed legislation to be finished as soon as this month.
