Marchenko discusses Ukraine's needs with IMF, European Commission leadership.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko, while on a working visit to Washington, has held a series of meetings with the leadership of the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission as part of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group to discuss Ukraine's urgent budgetary needs.

That's according to the Ukrainian Finance Ministry's press service, Ukrinform reports.

During the meeting with Director of the IMF's European Department Alfred Kammer, Deputy Director of the IMF's European Department Uma Ramakrishnan and IMF Mission Chief for Ukraine Gavin Gray, the parties discussed Ukraine's implementation of the defined conditionalities under the IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement.

In 2024, the EFF arrangement provides for $5.4 billion of budgetary assistance to Ukraine, of which $880 million has already been disbursed as a result of the successful third review of the program.

"The further functioning of the IMF arrangement is extremely important, and Ukraine is responsibly meeting the jointly agreed terms of cooperation. The implementation of these measures and policies will help maintain macro-financial stability and promote European integration. In 2024, under the EFF arrangement, we expect to successfully complete three more reviews, attracting budget support of $4.5 billion," Marchenko said.

During the meeting, Marchenko outlined the priorities of the state budget for 2024. The budget for security and defense amounts to $46 billion and is the largest part of expenditures. Another important task is to ensure the timely payment of all social expenditures. In this context, the Minister of Finance emphasized that the financial support of international partners plays a key role.

The IMF representatives highly appreciated the efforts of the Government of Ukraine to adapt the financial system to the uncertainty, including the measures taken in early 2024 due to the delay in external financing.

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During the meeting with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis, Marchenko thanked him for his significant support of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, in particular, for timely and long-term assistance.

"The European Union has been a key partner and donor of Ukraine since the first days of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Since February 2022, the State Budget has received more than EUR 30 billion in macro-financial assistance under EU initiatives. In 2024, the EU continues to be a leader in budget support for Ukraine. In March, the EU disbursed EUR 4.5 billion of Bridge financing. We expect to receive the next tranche of EUR 1.5 billion in April," Marchenko said.

Photos: Ministry of Finance of Ukraine / Facebook