Thursday, May 18, 2000

IMF May Recall Ukraine Loans

REUTERS

WASHINGTON -- The International Monetary Fund has yet to decide what to do about loans extended while Ukraine provided misleading figures for Central Bank reserves, but one remedy would be to ask Kiev to pay them, first deputy managing director Stanley Fischer said Tuesday.

The IMF said it was taking the misreporting "very seriously" and would soon decide the best response, Fisher said.

An independent auditors' report released earlier this month in a separate crackdown on Ukraine shows it had overstated its reserves by up to $713 million in 1996-98 as it struggled to win $200 million of IMF loans.

But repaying $200 million would be difficult for Ukraine, which has Central Bank reserves of just under $1 billion.

Ukraine owed the IMF $1.9 billion on March 31, the last date for which IMF figures are available.

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/18-May-2000/stories/story20.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), May 17, 2000