Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, discussed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission the current macro-financial situation, business support programmes and further joint steps to ensure economic growth. This was the subject of a meeting with the IMF delegation led by Alfred Kammer, Director of the IMF’s European Department. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister of Economy Oleksii Sobolev.

“First of all, I would like to thank the International Monetary Fund for supporting Ukraine during the war. It helps to ensure macroeconomic stability, which is a key factor for economic recovery, investment attraction and further economic growth. During the meeting, we discussed a number of key areas of activity that the Government is currently implementing, including the restoration and decentralisation of the energy sector, which is our number one priority, as well as the localisation of military production, increasing agricultural production and processing, expanding export opportunities, and supporting the de-occupied territories. We want to stimulate Ukraine’s recovery, and the professional expertise of the IMF mission helps us to find the right solutions,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the implementation of the Government’s action programme for this year, which covers 11 key priority areas of economic development, and the ratification of the agreement between Ukraine and the EU on a four-year EUR 50 billion Ukraine Facility.

“This week we have signed the Framework Agreement on financing from the European Union under the Ukraine Facility. Now it needs to be adopted by the Rada. We expect this to happen next week. Then the budget will receive EUR 1.89 billion. And this is important because some of the Ukraine Facility programme’s milestones coincide with those of the IMF cooperation programme,” Yuliia Svyrydenko continued.

The next topic for discussion was the creation of the Strategic Investment Council, which should form a single project portfolio of public investments, increase their efficiency and develop proposals for improving domestic legislation.

Localisation of military production was also an important topic of discussion during the meeting. Today, Ukraine produces more and more weapons, but the budget is not always sufficient to purchase them. Therefore, the parties discussed the possibility of purchasing Ukrainian-made weapons with funds from international partners. Such cooperation could additionally increase Ukraine’s GDP by 2-3%.

The issues of supporting small and medium-sized businesses were also addressed. In this context, the parties discussed the modernisation of the business support programme “Affordable Loans at 5-7-9%”.

“We are currently working on a new programme of support for small and medium-sized businesses to further improve their efficiency. We have to focus on supporting the defence industry, agriculture and processing, as well as on supporting the de-occupied territories. We are now looking at business support through the prism of creating new jobs and increasing the contribution to the creation of additional GDP,” Yuliia Svyrydenko continued.

The parties discussed the possibility of involving IMF experts in the expansion and modernisation of the Government’s eOselia preferential lending programme. Indeed, affordable mortgage lending should become one of the incentives for creating conditions for Ukrainians to return home. To date, more than 10,000 families have already taken advantage of the opportunity to take out a concessional mortgage. But about 40,000 more families are waiting for their turn.