IMF managing director sees further reforms in Ukraine as important

MOSCOW. Feb 17 (Interfax) - International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva reiterated the importance of continuing reforms in Ukraine at a meeting with Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko and National Bank of Ukraine Governor Andrei Pyshny on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies in Saudi Arabia.

"Forging ahead with essential policy and governance reforms will be essential for Ukraine," Ukrainian media outlets quoted Georgieva as saying on social media after the meeting.

Pyshny said earlier that the IMF is due to start the seventh review under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Ukraine this week. If it is successful, the Ukrainian budget will receive approximately $920 million.

However, Kiev is yet to meet two structural benchmarks, namely the adoption of bills cancelling the so-called Lozovoi amendments and the establishment of a high administrative court to replace the abolished Kiev District Administrative Court. The Ukrainian government registered related related bills at the national parliament in late December 2024, and they have yet to be approved in principle, though they were supposed to be adopted before the end of 2024 in line with the IMF program.

According to the memorandum, one of the bills amends the Criminal Procedure Code to allow the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office to manage extradition and mutual legal assistance requests and to rationalize consequences of the expiry of pretrial investigation periods, including in corruption cases.

The other benchmark calls for the establishment of a new court to hear administrative cases against government agencies, including the government itself, the National Bank, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, by judges who pass professional competence and integrity qualifications.