Ukraine will stay in the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the country is ready to continue reforms, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said after a trip of NBU Governor Valeriya Gontareva to take part in Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group.

"Reforms outlined in the IMF's program are of top priority for us. We confirmed at the meeting that Ukraine stays in the program and the new government will step up the continuation of cooperation with the IMF," Gontareva said.

The NBU said that IMF Head Christine Lagarde said at the meeting with the Ukrainian delegation that the IMF is ready to continue supporting Ukraine on its path of economic transformations and stated that the IMF mission will visit Ukraine soon.

Gontareva also met U.S. Treasury Department's Under Secretary for International Affairs Nathan Sheets, Head of Bank of England Mark Carney, Head of Riksbank (Sweden) Stefan Ingves, Head of the National Bank of Austria Ewald Nowotny, Head of the National Bank of Georgia Koba Gvenetadze, Head of the Latvian Financial and Capital Markets Commission Peteris Putnins and representatives of Citi Bank.

The four-year EFF program for Ukraine totalingSDR12.348 billion (about $17 billion), opened by the IMF in March 2015, originally foresaw quarterly revisions of the program, the issue of four tranches to Kyiv in 2015, another four in 2016. However, at present the country has received only the first tranche of funds for $5 billion and the second one worth $1.7 billion.

The IMF needs more clarity about the status of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian parliamentary coalition for the completion of the second review of the EFF.