16:52 21.10.2022

Ukraine, IMF in coming weeks to advance work on Program Monitoring with Board Involvement – IMF mission chief

2 min read
Ukraine, IMF in coming weeks to advance work on Program Monitoring with Board Involvement – IMF mission chief

Building on the results of the work of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team with representatives of Ukraine in Vienna on October 17-20, the IMF mission announced productive discussions and advancing work in the coming weeks to follow up on the Kyiv authorities' request for Program Monitoring with Board Involvement (PMB).

"The PMB will lay out the authorities' policy intentions to support macroeconomic and financial stability and present an assessment of external financing needs for 2023," IMF mission chief for Ukraine Gavin Gray said in a statement spread on Friday.

"As such, the PMB will also provide a strong anchor for macroeconomic policies, further catalyze donor support, and help pave the way toward a fully-fledged Fund program," Gray said.

Gray said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started over seven months ago has caused tremendous human suffering and had a severe economic impact. Real gross domestic product (GDP) has contracted significantly, inflation has risen sharply, trade has been substantially disrupted, and the fiscal deficit has risen to unprecedented levels.

"Against this challenging backdrop, the discussions focused on recent macro-financial developments and outlook, the budget for 2023 and associated external financing needs, financial sector issues and the mix of policies to support macroeconomic stability," he said.

He said that the Ukrainian authorities deserve considerable credit for having maintained an important degree of macro-financial stability in these extremely difficult circumstances.

"The authorities are encouraged to refrain from measures that erode tax revenues, as they strive to align expenditure with available financing," Gray said.

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