IMF, World Bank to discuss support for Ukraine at autumn meeting

MOSCOW. Oct 10 (Interfax) - The 8th ministerial roundtable on Ukraine will take place on Wednesday, October 15, as part of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington to be attended by World Bank President Ajay Banga and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, Ukrainian media said.

This roundtable [...] will convene select WBG and IMF governors, Ukrainian Government representatives, heads of European IFIs to talk about the needs for on-going support to Ukraine and efforts needed for its reconstruction," Ukrainian media said, citing information published on the World Bank and IMF websites.

The World Bank Group will host the event with the Ukrainian government and co-chair it with the IMF, it said.

The first roundtable took place at the spring meeting of the IMF and World Bank on April 21, 2022. The second was held at the autumn meeting on October 12 of the same year. In subsequent years, they were held semi-annually at similar events of these international financial institutions.

At the first meeting, the IMF head estimated Ukraine's monthly need for $5 billion in 2022 to finance the state budget deficit amid the crisis.

The Ukrainian delegation will discuss a new arrangement with the IMF at this year's annual IMF meeting, which will be held from October 13 to 18, Ukrainian media said. The Ukrainian prime minister, the National Bank head, and the finance minister formally asked for the arrangement on September 9. All of them will be visiting Washington next week.

Ukraine and the IMF are currently operating under a four-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement approved in late March 2023. The arrangement amounts to $15.6 billion, of which $10.6 billion has been disbursed. At the end of June this year, following the eighth review, the subsequent ninth and tenth reviews, which took place in late August and early December of this year, were combined into a single ninth review, which is now scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025 and may result in the disbursement of another tranche of approximately $1.6 billion.

The current four-year arrangement initially envisaged a total external financing of Ukraine by international partners of $115 billion in the baseline scenario and $140 billion in the negative scenario, but as the crisis dragged on, the numbers increased to $153 billion and $165 billion, respectively.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko tentatively estimates the need for external financing under the new four-year arrangement with the IMF at $150 billion to $170 billion. Western media said that the new arrangement might be reduced to $8 billion.