The decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to withhold a regular installment of a $16.4 billion loan to Ukraine would not affect the former Soviet state's economy, the parliament speaker said Saturday.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the IMF withheld the $3.5 billion tranche to Ukraine until after the presidential election due January 17. The paper said the decision reflected the global financial institution's "growing frustration over the inability of the country's politicians to get the budget under control."
"It won't have any consequences despite one - [we] will have to return less," Volodymyr Lytvyn was quoted as saying by the Unian news agency.
The IMF approved the loan to Ukraine in November 2008. The financial institution has already provided three tranches worth $4.5 billion, $2.8 billion and $3.3 billion to country as part of a stabilization loan program provided by the IMF to stabilize its economy, which had been seriously hurt by the current economic meltdown.
An IMF mission worked in the country's capital Kiev October 12-24. It was supposed to establish whether Ukraine implements conditions for the loan. The fourth tranche was to have been provided by the end of 2009.
KIEV, December 12 (RIA Novosti)
