Minister of Finance forecasts agreements with IMF this year, and tranche next year

"We have these funds, of course, foreseen in the budget. More so, we had two IMF tranches provisioned  ($700 million each – ed.). We have completed all the structural "beacons" for the first review. Of course, now there are other structural "beacons" that we are still implementing. I can't say for certain that there'll be no funds. It may turn out we'll find this solution somehow. But I don't want to make any optimistic promises about it.

A more probable scenario, I would say, highly probable, that we will agree on a mission this year and these funds will be available next year," Marchenko said.

He noted that currently, the issue is not so much in the tranche, but in the messages and interaction.

"If we can break the negative narrative of recent months, it will be a glorious victory, I think. Because it opens the way for us to receive macro-financial assistance, resume negotiations with the World Bank, and so on," Marchenko said.