IMF ready to cooperate with new Ukrainian government

"We stand ready to continue support of Ukraine. The new government came into office yesterday. We look forward to talk with them," he said at a press briefing on Friday at Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group held on April 12 through April 17. Thomsen said that the IMF is ready to complete the second review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) on cooperation with Ukraine if the new government is ready to implement this policy that has been agreed before. The four-year EFF program for Ukraine totaling SDR12.348 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. Director of the IMF Communications Department Gerry Rice said on March 3, 2016 that 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.