IMF says discussions on new Ukraine financing will need time

 Ukraine’s discussions about a new four-year lending programme with the International Monetary Fund will need some time to conclude, the global lender’s Europe director, Alfred Kammer, said on Friday.

“These discussions are progressing and they have progressed also during this week, but this will be a process which will take some time and this has just been the beginning of the process,” Kammer said in a press conference during the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington.

The IMF said on Wednesday that its managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, intended to visit Ukraine for the first time since February 2023. The date of the visit has not yet been determined.

A new program is needed since the one agreed on in 2023 assumed the war would end in late 2025, a prospect that is still not in sight. As was the case in 2023, Western countries will have to offer assurances to guarantee the IMF loan since the Fund normally does not lend to a country at war.

Some Western countries have advocated the use of frozen Russian assets to secure loans to Ukraine.

Kammer said the IMF did not have a firm view on this but that if done, it needed to be done in a legal way.

“What we recommend when it comes to the utilization of the frozen Russian assets is that countries who consider doing this look for a strong legal underpinning before doing so and are also aware of any implications for the international monetary system,” he said.

The IMF also urged Ukraine to keep up efforts to reduce corruption.

“Reforms on the anti-corruption side, on the governance side, on strengthening institutions are really big-time important in terms of setting Ukraine up for the restructuring phase,” Kammer said.