KIEV, March 27. /TASS/. The Ukrainian opposition in the Verkhovna Rada (the country’s parliament) stands against the thoughtless implementation of the International Monetary Fund's recommendations, Chairman of the Opposition Bloc faction Yuriy Boyko said on Friday.
"The state budget must not be adopted under the IMF’s dictation. The world has no positive experience in the thoughtless implementation of the IMF’s recommendations and a successful exit from the crisis by any country," the opposition lawmaker said.
"We have analyzed the situation in 80 countries, which adopted the IMF’s recipes: the position of 34 of them deteriorated, about another ten found themselves on the brink of default while the remaining states tried to survive at least somehow," Boyko said.
The Opposition Bloc was the sole faction in the Verkhovna Rada that voted against passing the budget elaborated under the IMF’s dictation, Boyko said.
"We openly said this must not be done. Moreover, we turned to the Constitutional Court when the parliament passed a law at its last year’s session cancelling the indexation of pensions. Now we’re seeking a cancellation of anti-social laws," the opposition lawmaker said.
The anti-social laws have already driven about ten million Ukrainian pensioners to the brink of poverty, Boiko said.
The International Monetary Fund approved on March 11 a new expanded $17.5 billion loan program for Ukraine. Kiev has already received $5 billion from this aid package and expects another $5 billion by the end of this year.
The IMF’s new loan program is a major part of the international bailout package for Ukraine worth a total of $40 billion.