IMF approves $17 billion loan package for Ukraine

[dipsydoodle]

Source: CNBC

The International Monetary Fund board has approved a two-year, $17 billion loan package for Ukraine.

The IMF announced the assistance Wednesday following a board meeting at the fund's Washington headquarters.

The IMF assistance pledged in March was hinged on economic reforms in Ukraine. The changes included raising taxes, freezing the minimum wage and raising energy prices—all steps that could hit households hard and strain the interim government's tenuous hold on power.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101620758

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Gas rates for Ukrainians households will jump over 50 percent as of May 1 http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024890726

[tech3149]

1. IMF, The Payday Lender for Nations!

I'm sure this will go well.

[Tempest]

2. Ukraine's future

Greece like austerity and Greece like mass protests.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Other than the fact

Greece's issues occurred and compounded over a number of years - for Ukraine this will be compressed into less than a year or so.

[newthinking]

4. They are in for it unfortunately. Their industries are closing up in the east

and mass layoffs are now occurring. Since their primary customer for industrial goods is Russia.

Imagine how it will get in the east as unemployment climbs. What a mess!

[dipsydoodle]

5. Reuters: Ukraine wins IMF deal; faces $9 billion in debt payments this year

May 1 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund's board has signed off on a $17 billion bailout for Ukraine to boost the former Soviet state's failing economy, weakened by months of upheaval and a stand-off with Moscow that has triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.

Ukraine desperately needs to increase revenues to try to meet its foreign currency debt obligations, and the first disbursement of $3.2 billion to Kiev will help it meet immediate payments.

Below is a list of what Ukraine needs to pay and what it expects to receive in credits this year.

(Figures include both Finance Ministry and Central Bank obligations, but do not include debts owed by state companies such as Naftogaz, which now owes $3.5 billion for gas imports from Moscow, according to Russia's Gazprom.)

UKRAINE OWES:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/01/ukraine-crisis-debts-imf-idUKL6N0NN2YC20140501