Yuschenko confirmed for second term as National Bank of Ukraine chairman (02/09/97)

Yuschenko confirmed for second term as National Bank of Ukraine chairman

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Viktor Yuschenko was confirmed by the Verkhovna Rada for a second four-year term as chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine on February 5. He had been confirmed only as the acting head of the bank on January 23 because he was on a business trip and not available to appear before the legislative body. His temporary designation was to expire on the day of the confirmation vote.

Until that day it appeared uncertain whether Mr. Yuschenko would retain his job. Parliament members of the Constitutional Center and the Reform factions had suggested that a less strident monetarist assume the position. However, with no suitable replacement candidate, they settled on the 42-year-old economist.

"There is no alternative today," said Yulii Yoffa, member of the Constitutional Center, before the vote.

Mr. Yuschenko's re-appointment by President Leonid Kuchma had been criticized by the Socialist and Communist forces in the legislature for all their traditional reasons: his policies were robbing the working class, and his reforms were merely financial manipulations to enrich the new ruling class.

Communist faction leader Petro Symonenko criticized the NBU for policies that "do not reflect the interests of Ukraine."

The leftist factions in the legislature had floated the names of two alternatives: Viktor Suslov, member of the Agrarian faction, and Serhii Tyhypka, president of PrivatBank.

Before the vote, however, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Moroz, a leader of the Socialist Party, called on the national deputies and specifically on his fellow party members to support the nomination of Mr. Yuschenko. In the end, 257 lawmakers voted in favor of the nomination and 87 were against.

Mr. Yuschenko, who had once served as head of the Ulyanovsk branch of the State Bank of the Ukrainian SSR and started his career as deputy chief economist for a collective farm, was praised by Vice Prime Minister of Economic Reform Viktor Pynzenyk for his unwavering support for economic reform and for his tight monetary policy that had resulted in a dramatic fall in inflation in Ukraine from more than 300 percent in 1995 to 39.7 percent in 1996.

"The bank performed well in tandem with the government, and as a result macro-economic stabilization has finally been reached," said Mr. Pynzenyk.

Deputy Vadym Hetman, former head of the National Bank of Ukraine and today a member of the Verkhovna Rada's Financial and Banking Activities Committee, said Mr. Yuschenko has calmed the financial waters in Ukraine. "The NBU is in effective control of the currency market, and today there is no fear that the value of the hryvnia could decline," he said.

Mr. Hetman made the motion to confirm Mr. Yuschenko as the NBU chairman, when Mr. Suslov of the Agrarian Party, who is the chairman of the Financial and Banking Activities Committee, declined to do so.

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