Ukraine expects first tranche of $3 billion from IMF aid package

[jakeXT]

15. Ukraine Welcomes IMF Austerity Regime

Ukraine’s new leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk held firm to his promise this week that he will become the country’s worst-ever Prime Minister. On Thursday, he agreed to a minimum of $14 billion to as much as $18 billion in an International Monetary Fund package that requires massive reforms of Ukraine’s weak economy.

Ukraine’s economy is roughly 40% smaller than that of Greece, with a GDP of around $170 billion. The IMF admitted last summer that it had misjudged the effect of austerity on Greece, saying it had miscalculated the so-called “fiscal multiplier” and were too optimistic on growth.

Ukraine’s macroeconomic imbalances became unsustainable over the past year. The current account deficit is over 9% of GDP, worse than Greece’s 3.37%. Within the region, only smaller countries like Armenia and the countries that were once part of Yugoslavia are in worse shape.

Ukraine has significant external debt payments and limited access to international debt market. International reserves fell to a critically low level of two months of import in early 2014, or around $30 billion


http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2014/03/28/ukraine-welcomes-imf-austerity-regime/