The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) believes that it is appropriate to initiate a new long-term program of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before the completion of the Stand By Arrangement (SBA), according to materials from the NBU spread among journalists at a briefing devoted to the presentation of the financial stability report.

"The current program expires early next year. Bearing in mind the long list of reforms Ukraine still has to implement and given the vulnerability of the Ukrainian economy to external shocks, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) deems it prudent to initiate a new long-term program with the IMF, ideally before the expiration of the current Stand-By Arrangement," the NBU said.

Deputy NBU Governor Dmytro Sologub said at the briefing that the NBU does not expect that the volume of the new program with the IMF will be the same as the previous Extended Fund Facility (EFF) approved in March 2015.

"The 2015 EFF was large enough. In terms of the volume, it was a crisis program... I can say that we do not expect the (new) program to be the same size as the 2015 program had... The IMF's main function will be to signal other investors... and those reforms that are carried out under the program. These are the benchmarks, not monetary resources," he said.