Ukraine will have to come to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund about a new program for allocation of credits following the parliamentary elections.

This opinion was expressed by Bleyzer Foundation Executive Director Oleh Ustenko at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday, an UKRINFORM's correspondent reports.

"My working proposal consists in the fact that most likely it is possible to say good-bye to a stand-by program with the IMF, which we had. This is the end on this agreement," Ustenko has said.

He explained that at the end of the year, it is not worth expecting resumption of work on the program. At the end of October 2012, Ukraine will have to approach the IMF again with a proposal to start negotiations on a new program.

Ustenko forecasts that at the beginning of next year, the International Monetary Fund will approve quite a new stand-by program for Ukraine, but with a different volume of credits and other terms. According to the executive director of the Bleyzer Foundation, the IMF will not mitigate its demands to Ukraine in negotiations on a new stand-by program. "I think that the IMF position will be either fixed as it is now or toughened."

The IMF will continue insisting on reduction of the state budget deficit, on raising tariffs for population, on reduction of budget expenses as such. Next requirement, which the IMF will advance to Ukraine, according to Ustenko, will be transfer to a floating rate formation and this requirement will be reinforced.

In addition, the expert supposes that additional requirements will be advanced to regulation of Ukrainian commercial banks. "Deepness of problems, which exist in the Eurozone in the banking sector are so large that nobody from Europe intends to rescue those "daughters," located on the Ukrainian territory."

Touching on the issue about the IMF credit amount, Ustenko said that the number of money has no principal significance.

"We could maneuver within USD 15 billion. Availability of the program with the IMF is substantially more important."

The expert assumes that the government will strive to get maximum possible amount from the IMF, and the matter will concern USD 10-15 billion.

To remind, in July 2010, the IMF has approved the stand-by program for Ukraine, within the frames of which it was ready to allocate about USD 15.5 billion until the end of this year. Immediately following approval of the cooperation program, Ukraine received the first tranche of the IMF credit to the amount of USD 1.89 billion. On December 22, 2010, the second tranche of the stand-by credit was allocated to the amount of SDR 1 billion, which makes up USD 1.5 billion.

Ukrinform