11 June 2021, Friday, 17:26 198

Cabinet Approves Use Of USD 6 Million From Ukraine's IMF Accounts To Write Off Sudan's Debt

Редактор: Tetiana Herasimova

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the use of USD 6 million from Ukraine's accounts with the International Monetary Fund to write off Sudan's debt to the fund.

This is stated in the Cabinet of Ministers directive No. 612 of June 9, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.

In particular, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a draft letter to the IMF on provision of financial assistance to Sudan to restructure its debts to the fund.

The explanatory note to the document states that the Ministry of Finance drafted the directive with the aim of participation of Ukraine in the IMF’s initiative on provision of financial assistance to Sudan under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative by using part of Ukraine’s funds in special accounts with the IMF to pay its debts to the IMF.

About USD 24 million is currently held in Ukraine’s accounts with the IMF.

The source of the funds in these accounts is the interest on the fund's loans.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not support this initiative for political reasons.

The remainder of the money in Ukraine's accounts with the IMF will be used to repay interest on IMF loans in the future.

According to the explanatory note, the decision to allow the use of part of the funds in Ukraine’s account with the IMF to help Sudan will bolster Ukraine’s international image as a reliable business partner.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, IMF experts and Ukrainian government representatives discussed the progress of the implementation of measures and reforms that are part of the government's action program supported by the Stand-By loans agreement from December 21 to 23, 2020 and from January 11 to February 12, 2021.

After that, the International Monetary Fund’s resident representative in Ukraine Goesta Ljungman said that more progress in reforms was needed to complete the first revision of the fund’s loan program for Ukraine.