Finance minister expects IMF mission in Kyiv next week

The new Ukrainian government has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to promptly send aits mission to Kyiv to prepare a new stand-by program of financial assistance, which Ukrainian government estimates at $15 billion at least, Finance Minister Oleksandr Shlapak has said.

"It is too early to talk about amounts and timing, but we have already sent a request to the IMF to send a mission and we hope that it will be here next week," Shlapak told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.

"This will be a new program. We will ask for at least $15 billion, but time will tell," the minister added.

He noted that the state budget adopted in January 2014 was too optimistic, so they would have to bring it in compliance with real figures.

"We will present a revised budget to the IMF, because it is the stand by-program, which we want to introduce in the near future, that will help stabilize the financial and monetary situation in the country," Shlapak said.