No need to change IMF program for Ukraine due to political crisis – finance minister

"A memorandum [with the IMF] could be changed, and I don't see the reasons to change the program," she said on the sidelines of the 12th Annual Investor Conference organized by Dragon Capital in Kyiv on Thursday. Jaresko said that the situation is different compared to H2 2014 and early 2015 when it was required to switch from the Stand-By Arrangement to the EFF arrangement. She said that then there was an awful financial and economic situation and war in Ukraine. "We don’t have this situation [now]. The financial situation in the country [is the following:] we are not on the verge of the disaster, as the government and the NBU worked properly in the past 15 months. There are reserves, and the government has currency accounts," the minister said. "A week or two [of a delay] affects nothing," she said. Jaresko said that a slight worsening of the economic pace at the beginning of the year and the forecast for its growth in general does not considerably influence the situation. "The budget is being implemented," she said. The minister said that at present work on the revised memorandum of the economic and financial policy that precedes the receiving of the new tranche under the EFF program is underway. Jaresko said that it is important for Ukraine to resume the EFF with the IMF as soon as possible due to various reasons, including the further expansion of forex reserves in Ukraine, as it creates confidence in the national currency, in the banking system and among investors. She said that the current EFF program with the IMF is the indicator of the pace of reforms.