Slow pace of reform delayed loans

 KYIV – Ukraine’s Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko disclosed that the government failed to get $3 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank last week because it had not complied with their demands for reform. In a posting on Facebook, Ms. 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. Ms. Jaresko urged Parliament to pass legislation safeguarding bank deposits for small savers; giving legal powers to a national anti-corruption bureau; regulating public utilities; and reforming the Naftohaz 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.” On July 2 the IMF said that it had reached agreement with Kyiv on steps needed to release $1.7 billion in much-needed bailout funds. The IMF originally conditioned its aid on Ukraine achieving a deal with private creditors to reduce its debt burden by $15 billion over four years. But more recently the IMF softened its stance and said it might release funds even if Kyiv does not have a debt restructuring agreement with its private creditors. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS, Agence France-Presse and Reuters)