20 February 2009, 13:02
On Thursday, Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, met Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine, and Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine, to discuss the possibility of signing a common appeal at the level of the President, the Prime Minister, the Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the National Bank of Ukraine and the Minister of Finance concerning restoration of Ukraine´s cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.
The participants of the meeting dwelled upon the socio-economic situation in the country, suspension of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund and the possibility of signing the said common appeal.
The Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stated that suspension of a regular tranche from the IMF "immediately served as a negative signal for the EBRD, the World Bank and other financial institutions".
"The point is that extra 20 billion UAH should be obtained to reduce the budget deficit that totals 50 billion UAH", - explained the Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, adding that "the dialogue with the IMF can be restored only on such grounds". However, he objected to the increase of tax load, as it would result in a total collapse of the country.
V.Lytvyn also deems necessary to take loans from different sources, but he supposes that the conditions should be transparent and "it is important to take into account the payable interest of Ukraine due to the maintenance of external debt, i.e. 30-40 billion USD".