Wall Street Journal: after the IMF loan Ukraine requests additional assistance

The financial aid promised to Ukraine is not enough for the national economy to make a breakthrough. This statement was made by the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Natalia Yaresko a few days after the IMF approved the expanded aid package.

“The package we received will stabilize the banking system, but is not enough to seriously restart the economy and resume growth,” Yaresko told the Wall Street Journal after meeting with US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. “I hope for additional support.”

The newspaper recalled that last week the IMF approved the provision of an emergency loan of 17,5 billions of dollars as part of a larger package of international financial assistance totaling 40 billions of dollars.

The latter is designed to keep the country afloat, while the pro-Western government in Kiev carries out fundamental economic reforms and is trying to cope with the pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

At meetings with senior representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the State Department, the White House and lawmakers, Yaresko tries to convince them that Ukraine’s support will bring geopolitical dividends.

“No one bears such expenses on protecting the world from a nuclear power that has become an aggressor,” the finance minister said, referring to Russia.

“If for some reason one of our partners does not want or is not able to provide us with military defensive assistance, then give us financial support,” she added.

Washington was instrumental in making the IMF’s decision to allocate aid, the Wall Street Journal said. The publication writes that, thanks to the United States, other international lenders also agreed to provide assistance totaling 7,5 billions of dollars.

However, the US, IMF, and other lenders fear that the assistance program may be subject to a number of “exceptional risks,” as they are called by fund representatives. Previous governments have twice refused to comply with the terms of IMF assistance, the newspaper said.