The International Monetary Fund, the global lender of last resort, has agreed a package of support for\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0of $15.6bn (\u00a312.8bn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The loan, the first the Washington-based lender will make to a country at war, could represent one of the biggest tranches of financial support for Ukraine so far. It still needs to be signed off by the IMF\u2019s executive board, a process that should conclude within weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
War had taken a \u201chorrific humanitarian toll\u201d on Ukraine, said Gavin Gray,\u00a0the IMF\u2019s mission chieffor the country, but it also \u201ccontinues to have a devastating impact on the economy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine\u2019s economic output \u2013 GDP \u2013 shrank by 30% last year and poverty levels have risen significantly. Pressure on public spending to support the economy and manage its war effort is considerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe authorities have nevertheless managed to maintain macroeconomic and financial stability, thanks to substantial external support and skilful policymaking,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He held talks in Warsaw, Poland, with officials from the war-stricken country in mid-March. Gray was picked to head up the fund\u2019s mission in Ukraine last year, in part due to his experience working for the fund on its activities in Iraq from 2018 to 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe overarching goals of the authorities\u2019 programme are to sustain economic and financial stability in circumstances of exceptionally high uncertainty, restore debt sustainability and support Ukraine\u2019s recovery on the path toward EU accession in the postwar period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The programme had been designed in line with the fund\u2019s new policy on lending under exceptionally high uncertainty, and strong financing assurances were expected from donors, including the G7 and EU, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US is the IMF\u2019s largest shareholder and has contributed more to Ukraine in aid and military support than any other country. The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said: \u201cAn ambitious and appropriately conditioned IMF programme is critical to underpin Ukraine\u2019s reform efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe Biden announced nearly\u00a0half a billion more dollars\u00a0of US military aid to Ukraine in February. That was in addition to the $112bn approved by Congress in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rivalries for political and economic influence in Ukraine and its neighbours were thrown into sharp relief by two visits to the region this week. Japan\u2019s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, travelled to Bucha, a town that has become a byword for the extreme brutality of Russia\u2019s invasion. Meanwhile, China\u2019s premier Xi Jinping was received by Vladimir Putin for a state dinner in Moscow, amid western concerns that China could bolster Russia\u2019s war effort by supplying it with weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While western allies have tried to set a narrative about the path to economic recovery in an independent Ukraine, Putin has likewise tried to lay claim to rebuilding efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian leader made\u00a0a surprise visit\u00a0to the occupied Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Saturday and was presented with a report on reconstruction work in the city, according to the Tass news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
source:Anne isaac<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The International Monetary Fund, the global lender of last resort, has agreed a package of support for\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0of $15.6bn (\u00a312.8bn). The loan, the first the Washington-based lender will make to a country at war, could represent one of the biggest tranches of financial support for Ukraine so far. It still needs to be signed off by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,12],"tags":[6850,5178,7927,5640,9331,6693,6725,9309,5196,159,9127,7058,9643,462,1237,10771,5060,10954,2183,5252,6581,5805,2959,2471,7225,5657,5572,6779,5340,11973,12727,837,11082,9431,3174,71,13209,3457,5217,8840,5180,5177,5555,6348,9516,694,5251,10395,2354,5724,3954,10415,7898,8327,11113],"class_list":["post-30303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-world-news","tag-aid","tag-biden","tag-brutality","tag-bucha","tag-city","tag-congress","tag-debt","tag-dollars","tag-economy","tag-eu","tag-february","tag-fumio-kishida","tag-fund","tag-g7","tag-gdp","tag-horrific","tag-imf","tag-international","tag-international-monetary-fund","tag-invasion","tag-iraq","tag-janet-yellen","tag-japan","tag-joe-biden","tag-loan","tag-mariupol","tag-military","tag-military-aid","tag-moscow","tag-one","tag-package","tag-poland","tag-port","tag-poverty","tag-prime-minister","tag-putin","tag-rebuilding","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-strong","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraines-president-volodymyr-zelensky","tag-ukrainian","tag-us","tag-us-military","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-warsaw","tag-washington","tag-weapons","tag-will","tag-work","tag-xi","tag-xi-jinping","tag-yellen"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}