Kiev, Ukraine. The IMF has finally reached the go “F” yourself moment in Kiev, as they have informed Kiev that without a reform in pensions and their courts, the IMF will no longer be flooding Kiev with large boxes of “corruption cash” for Ukraine’s crime family mafia leadership.
The International Monetary Fund said on Friday Ukraine must stick to its reform commitments, including planned pension changes, in order to achieve stronger and sustainable growth.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, led by Ron van Rooden, visited Kiev during May 16-26, to initiate discussions on the fourth review of the authorities’ economic reform program supported under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement.
The statement was released following a visit by an IMF mission to Ukraine to review its progress under a $17.5 billion bailout program which is not going well. No sooner does the money arrive in Kiev, than off it goes to banks in Cyprus, Israel, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
“In this regard, the mission held constructive discussions with the authorities on reforms needed to improve productivity, attract investment, and continue to strengthen public finances. As envisaged under the program, discussions focused on the pending pension and land reform and on measures to speed up the privatization process and ensure concrete results in anticorruption efforts,” van Rooden announced
Privately, Ukrainian officials were shocked when told they had to raise the retirement age and lower benefits for pensioniers and were warned for “the last time,” to get a corruption court working or “kiss the bucks bye-bye.”
“While the near-term outlook is positive, decisive implementation of structural reforms remains critical to achieve stronger and sustainable growth that Ukraine needs over the medium-term.”
IMF miission chief Ron van Rooden said in the statement.“While good progress has been made in building understandings on the key elements of these measures, further technical work is needed in some areas to transform these into draft laws that meet the reform objectives.”
“Securing parliamentary approval of these draft laws will be needed to pave the way for the completion of the fourth review. IMF staff, in cooperation with other international partners, will remain closely engaged with the authorities in the coming weeks to advance the reform agenda.” van Rooden concluded.
Ukrainians in the meeting were torn between getting physical over the direct, frank and earnest language and remaining cool, given another tranche is within reach and if Groysman can juggle cooking the numbers on the pensions, while Poroshenko can create a phony “executive” authorized corruption court and bypass the Rada, it just might be possible to keep the circus going another six months.