The Program Monitoring with Board Involvement (PMB) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Ukraine is an important step towards securing financing for the country in 2023 both by international donors and directly by the Fund, Alternate Executive Director at the IMF Vladyslav Rashkovan has said.

"The program itself is a very important anchor, because if the IMF puts its name, then for all investors it (means) that the IMF believes in this macro framework. And this is a very important signal for other donors that it is possible to finance the country," he told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the International Expert Conference on the Recovery, Reconstruction and Modernization of Ukraine in Berlin on Tuesday.

Rashkovan recalled that for any program of the Fund, in addition to emergency funding, such a macro framework is needed. "This is a set of macro indicators that are in the system: the forecast of GDP, inflation, the forecast for many indicators," the Alternate Executive Director of the IMF said.

According to him, it is very difficult to build this macro framework now for Ukraine in conditions of extreme uncertainty, therefore the IMF refrained from indicators for Ukraine for 2023 and subsequent years in the World Economic Forecast.

At the same time, Rashkovan said that the fund has a Staff Monitored Program (SMP) that is set up to work in these conditions – a more flexible program that provides opportunities for volatility.

"Given the level of attention to Ukraine, the level of geopolitical weight, the Executive Board (of the Fund) wanted to take part," he said, explaining the fact that PMB is being considered for Ukraine for the first time.

"PMB is not a cash program, but it exists as a bridge to move on to the next program (with funding). It is also approved by the Executive Board," Rashkovan added.

He recalled that Ukraine and the IMF are now in negotiations: last week the mission in Vienna completed its work, and the other day the Managing Director talked with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and met with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Technical consultations are still ongoing because the level of uncertainty is very high, for example, it is necessary to analyze the possible impact of recent attacks on energy facilities, the Fund representative said.

"From the point of view of timeframes, this is work in progress. I think that before the end of the year we will approve this PMB, then it will have some test dates to (check) prediction power... to show that everything is working," Rashkovan said.

He added that there are many factors that greatly influence Ukraine, for example, whether the grain initiative will be extended.

"Besides, it is necessary in such difficult conditions to properly coordinate monitoring and fiscal policies without negatively affecting the mandate of the National Bank," he said.

"That is, all these things will be discussed during the preparation of this program, then during PMB. All these are factors that will lead to a new program at the beginning of next year," Rashkovan said.