IMF to grant Ukraine $17.5bn out of $40bn funding

Over the next four years Ukraine will receive around $40 Billion in funding that includes International Monetary Fund's Extended Fund Facility of US $17.5 Billion (15.5 Billion euros), the IMF said today.
"The IMF team working in Kiev had reached an agreement with the Ukraine Government on a new economic programme with US $17.5 Billion coming from the IMF and additional resources from the international community," IMF chief Christine Lagarde told reporters Thursday in Brussels as talks on the Ukraine conflict resumed in Minsk.
"From these various sources taken together, a total financing package of around $40 billion is estimated over the four year period," she said.
"It is an ambitious programme that offers an important opportunity for Ukraine to move its economy forward at a critical moment. It is not without risk, but it is also a realistic and its effective implementation, after consideration and approval by our Executive Board, can represent a turning point for Ukraine." The IMF's staff-level agreement came after Ukraine's government showed "a determination to reform like we have never seen," she said.
The ex-Soviet republic is on the brink of bankruptcy after a year of political upheaval and war and was hoping to clinch a deal with the IMF to unlock the wider financing package.