Reuters: IMF prepares $8.1 billion loan for Ukraine in exchange for reforms

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, will ask the IMF's Executive Board within a few weeks to approve a new $8.1 billion loan program for Ukraine. The aim is to strengthen the financing of a country that has been facing the consequences of war for the third year in a row.

Georgieva told Reuters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other government officials. According to her, the situation in Ukraine has changed since the preliminary agreement in November, but the basic conditions of the program remain unchanged.

The IMF wants to verify whether the agreed measures are feasible in the current difficult conditions.

One of the fund's key requirements is the abolition of the VAT exemption on consumer goods, which is meeting with resistance at home. Georgieva stressed that this is a necessary step for the functioning of the market economy, attracting private investment, and Ukraine's progress towards EU membership.

According to her, it will be sufficient for the bill to be submitted to parliament for the program to be approved, although its final adoption may take up to a year.

(reuters)