The IMF has not yet decided on the new date of meeting on the Ukrainian issue

The International Monetary Fund has not yet decided on the new date of the meeting of the Board of Directors on the issue of completion of the third re-examination of the Expanded Financing Facility program (EFF) for Ukraine. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine agency with reference to the press service of the fund.

"The meeting of the Board of Directors, scheduled for March 20, was delayed in order to estimate the impact of the latest events on the cooperation program. The IMF expects to report on a new meeting date in the near future", - the statement said.

It was reported earlier that the issue of the third re-examination of the Expanded Financing Facility program EFF for Ukraine has disappeared from the agenda of the Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund for March 20. There is no information on the reasons for such changes on the Fund's website. The agenda is scheduled until March 24 and there is no issue of Ukraine in it.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the rescheduling of the meeting is caused solely by the need to clarify the calculation of the economic consequences of the measures taken by Ukraine in response to the blockade and the seizure of Ukrainian enterprises in the uncontrolled territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as in connection with the recognition by the Russian party of the documents issued on these territories.

In its turn, the National Bank of Ukraine reports in response to requests from the media that Ukraine is in the program of cooperation with the IMF. "The latest course of events in the country needs additional study of their potential impact on the economy and its accounting in the macroeconomic projections of the program of cooperation with the Fund", - the website of the National Bank on Facebook says.

In its turn, the National Bank also plans to update macroeconomic projections taking into account the effect of the trade blockade of certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. With this end in view, an extraordinary meeting of the NBU Monetary Policy Committee will take place on Monday, March 20, 2017.

The Decree of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko from March 16 brings into force the decision of the NSDC from March 15 on the temporarily stop the cargo movement across the contact line in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The decision does not concern humanitarian supplies and the crossing of the line of demarcation by people.

The IMF announced on March 4 that it had reached an agreement with the Ukrainian authorities on the memorandum on economic and financial policy. This opens the way for the completion of the third re-examination of the Expanded Financing Facility program EFF, following the results of which Ukraine can be provided with the fourth tranche of financing in the amount of SDR734.05 million (about $1 billion).

Open by IMF in March 2015 four-year EFF program with a total amount of SDR12.348 billion (about $17.25 billion) initially envisaged a quarterly re-examination of the program with the first tranche of $5 billion, the allocation of three more tranches in the amount of SDR1.18 billion (about $1,65 billion) in 2015 and the decrease of quarterly tranches to SDR0.44 billion ($ 0.61 billion) in 2016-2018.

The Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Danylyuk reported on March 16 that the next credit tranche of the IMF within the framework of the EFF program could reach Ukraine next week. "The meeting (of the IMF Board of Directors – ed.) will be held next Monday and we expect a tranche next week, which is very positive", - he said, speaking at the annual conference of Dragon Capital investment company in Kyiv on past Thursday.