Ukraine's Sluggish Action On Reforms Delayed Receipt Of Loans

Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko has disclosed that the government failed to get $3 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this week because it has not complied with their demands for reform.

The IMF said on July 2 that it would release funds after Ukraine met undisclosed conditions.

In a posting on Facebook, Jaresko said the Ukrainian parliament delayed action on four legal reforms that must be passed to obtain a $1.7 billion loan installment from the IMF and another $1.3 billion from the World Bank.

"This week, our country might have complied with the conditions necessary for further progress," she wrote, but none of the reforms was adopted.

Jaresco urged parliament to pass legislation safeguarding bank deposits for small savers; giving legal powers to a national anticorruption bureau; regulating public utilities; and reforming the Naftogaz gas company.

"We call on deputies to make the adoption of these laws the first priority of the next plenary week," she said. "We cannot afford to disregard the
financial support the people of Ukraine need so much in the days of the grave economic crisis."

With reporting by TASS