Participants in IMF and World Bank autumn meetings will again discuss support for Ukraine

The eighth meeting of the Ministerial Roundtable on Support for Ukraine will take place on Wednesday, October 15, as part of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) in Washington, D.C., with the participation of WB Governor Ajay Banga and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

“This invitation-only Ministerial 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,” the websites of the World Bank and the IMF say.

It is noted that the World Bank Group will host the event with the Government of Ukraine and co-chair it with the IMF.

The first meeting of this "roundtable" took place at the spring meeting of the IMF and the World Bank on April 21, 2022, the second - at the autumn meeting on October 12 of the same year, and in subsequent years they took place every six months at similar events of these leading international financial organizations.

In the first, the head of the IMF pointed to Ukraine's monthly need for $5 billion in 2022 to finance the state budget deficit in the context of the war unleashed by Russia. In the second, Zelenskyy proposed that the global financial community take three urgent steps to support Ukraine: create a "financial Ramstein," ensure economic recovery and aid to Ukrainians, and create a mechanism to support investment and insure them against war risks.

At the third meeting, Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the IMF and the World Bank to approve a $14.1 billion support program to cover priority Rapid Recovery projects, and also called for the development of specific mechanisms for using frozen Russian assets to compensate for the damage caused by Russia.

This year, during the IMF's annual meeting, which will take place from October 13 to 18, the Ukrainian delegation will discuss with the Fund a new program, which the Ukrainian Prime Minister, along with the Governor of the National Bank and the Minister of Finance, formally requested on September 9. They will all be in Washington next week.