A difficult year will be in front of Ukraine in 2023: the public finance deficit is estimated at $3-4 billion, it is necessary to ensure sustainability of the economy, and the IMF will provide support: an international forum will be brought together in the near future to solve this problem, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva has said.

"What we need to look into is how to ensure sustainability of the economy… Our preliminary estimate is that somewhere between $3-$4 billion are necessary on a monthly basis," she said at the Second Ministerial Roundtable Discussion for Support to Ukraine as part of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington in Wednesday.

Responding to the call of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to bring together an economic forum, which meets on a regular basis, and looks into the macroeconomic framework in the country, the financing gap and look at how to close this gas, Georgieva said that such work is already underway.

She said that the IMF will be assembling the forum as soon as possible.

She also said that the Fund has a new platform to engage, which is the programme with monitoring from the board, which is a pathway to a full-fledged program for Ukraine, which Zelensky called for.

"We are moving with you in the direction of a strong Ukraine," Georgieva said.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that a new IMF program for Ukraine could be early next year.

Georgieva said that the Fund's team, together with the Ukrainian team, immediately after the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, will determine the macroeconomic framework and also what that would mean in terms of budgetary implications.

She expressed her hope that the war would end sooner rather than later. "But from what we are seeing, we have to be there for the Ukrainian people," the head of the IMF said.

She recalled that Ukraine's international partners have already mobilized $35 billion, a significant part of which has already been transferred, and called for further support, especially in grants.

According to Georgieva, further needs will be determined, firstly, by the cost of social services, which depends on war and migration, and secondly, the cost of reconstruction of vital infrastructure, which also depends on war and on prioritization.

"And three, what are the energy needs of the country, how much needs to be imported to provide for people in Ukraine, and it would depend, whether, in addition to of course the horrors of war," the managing director added.

She said that the senseless war of Russia against Ukraine has sharply worsened the prospects for the global economy and brought the most dramatic consequences for the people of Ukraine.