Conditions of the International Monetary Fund, necessary for granting the financial aid, are acceptable for Ukraine. Executive Director of the International Bleyzer Foundation Oleh Ustenko expressed this opinion in comments to a UKRINFORM correspondent.

“By many points of the proposed memorandum, the Ukrainian government may agree with the IMF. At the same time, the government has possibility for additional negotiations. As concerns rising of gas tariffs, there is nothing terrible in the IMF requirements if to take the heat off the most vulnerable population strata,” the economist has said.

According to him, all requirements, about which he Fund speaks, are not new. “A task, put by the IMF, is in this case to bring state finances to a stable state. Therefore, the matter concerns reduction of the state budget deficit. This is an ordinary formula, proposed by the Fund,” Ustenko noted.

The expert paid a special attention to the fact that in the project the matter concerns reduction of the global deficit of the Ukrainian state budget in 2014 to 4.5% of GDP, although the analyst expected that the IMF will insist on reduction of deficit to 3.5% of GDP.

“Actually, it is proposed to return the state finances to the level of 2011, when deficit of 4.5% of GDP was actually fixed. If to compare it with the previous year level - 5.5% of GDP, this means that the IMF has no serious expectations of a sharp drop of economic growth in Ukraine,” Ustenko stressed.

The expert proposed that the IMF recommendation to raise the gas prices will be fulfilled by the government, but at the same time, the heat will be taken off the most vulnerable population, and this will not raise objections on the part of the IMF.

 “Rising of gas prices by 40% is the average figure. I believe that the Premier and the First Vice Premier will insist and this should satisfy the IMF that for different categories of population, raising of prices may be different. For instance, for citizens, who consume the minimum gas, prices may grow to 10%, and the following groups will absorb the shock from the rise. At the same time, the largest shock may be for the richest group of population, who consume 6,000 cu m of gas and more,” Ustenko suggested.

As concerns the issues related to the Pension Fund, the IMF recommendations about limiting of privileged pensions, according to the expert, fully complies with a concept of the governments economic bloc.

Commenting on the IMF recommendation to abolish reduction of the VAT rate from 20% to 17%, planned for 2014, the expert noted that in distinction from the government, which intends to attract investors by reduction of the rate in the mid-term and long-term perspective, the Fund more worries about filling of the budget in the short-term and mid-term perspective.

“Both positions have grounds and, possibly, the IMF position in this issue is acceptable for the Cabinet of Ministers,” Ustenko believes.

As the Bleyzer Foundation Executive Director stressed, considerable reduction of the financing volume on the IMF cooperation program (mass media name the amount of USD 5 billion, instead of the planned USD 15 billion) does not play a principal role.

“This is acceptable for Ukraine, taking into consideration that the government is no slouch at existing load and actively borrowed on the world capital market under good rates,” the economist believes.

The very program of cooperation with the Fund, Ustenko noted, is to a larger extent a signal for external markets than it influences the situation inside the country, therefore, in this case, the financing amount is not important.

“The IMF cooperation program is a kind of a flag, which will give possibility to Ukraine to borrow easily on the world market, to increase the number of prolonged credits, to keep the interest on the part of foreign investors,” Ustenko summed up.

 Ukrinform