Finance Minister Marchenko heads updated working group on talks with IMF

Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko has joined and headed the Inter-Institutional Working Group to Coordinate Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the composition of which has been updated and expanded from 17 to 19 people.

According to the Cabinet of Ministers' Order No. 1011 of September 22, published on the government's website on Monday evening, if earlier the group included only one minister – of justice, now there are four of them: the Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture and the Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity.

The document also updates the personal composition of the group, as it was last approved in August 2022. As a result, now the group includes Herman Haluschenko as Minister of Justice instead of Denys Maliuska, Iryna Mudra as Deputy Head of the President's Office instead of Andriy Smyrnov, and Denys Uliutin remained in the group, but now as Minister of Social Policy, not First Deputy Minister of Finance.

At the same time, the Board Chairman of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy was excluded from the group; in 2022, this position was held by Yuriy Vitrenko, as was a representative of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC).

Government Commissioner for Public Debt Management Yuriy Butsa, who previously headed the working group, remained in its composition, but as one of the three deputy chairmen.

The National Bank, as before, is represented by First Deputy Governor Serhiy Nikolaychuk and Deputy Governor Yuriy Heletiy.

The Director of the Department of International Relations and Organizational and Analytical Work of the Ministry of Finance, Maryna Benedyk, was appointed Secretary of the Working Group instead of Dmytro Mantsurov, who was the Head of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Finance.

As reported, during the IMF mission in Kyiv from September 3 to September 10, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, together with the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine and the Minister of Finance, officially requested a new program from the IMF on September 9. The Fund, in turn, announced the development of a schedule for discussions on the new program in the coming weeks.

Marchenko estimated the total amount of external financing needed for the period of the new 4-year program with the IMF at $150 billion to $170 billion.

The current four-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), approved in March 2023, initially provided a total of $115 billion in external financing for Ukraine from international partners in the base case and $140 billion in the negative case. However, due to the delay in taking effect, these figures increased to $153 billion and $165 billion, respectively.

The current 4-year EFF program with the IMF of $15.6 billion, which was approved in March 2023, initially provided for a total amount of external financing for Ukraine with the participation of international partners of $115 billion in the base case and $140 billion in the negative case, but as the war dragged on, these figures were increased to $153 billion and $165 billion, respectively.