Jerome Vacher, the IMF’s envoy to Ukraine, said that the budget itself is “consistent with the (IMF) program’s objectives,” The Kyiv Post reported.
However, discussions continue on some remaining issues - notably on structural fiscal reforms that are needed to ensure medium-term fiscal sustainability, Vacher said.
Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said the IMF is considering not only the adoption of the 2016 budget, “but the execution of all the preliminary conditions and structural benchmarks, the terms of which were scheduled before the end of December 2015, when making its decision about the disbursement of the next tranche.”
Read alsoJaresko: IMF agrees Ukraine’s Budget-2016An IMF board meeting on whether to allocate $1.7 billion to Ukraine will take place in February the latest, according to Ukraine’s Finance Ministry.
According to Empire State Capital, a Kyiv-based investment firm, it is likely that the IMF’s decision on the next financial installment will come only in March.
But by that time, more changes might be required, experts say.
