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IMF Board of Directors to discuss anti-crisis program for Ukraine next Monday - source

However the Board’s official schedule has no such item

WASHINGTON, March 30. /TASS/. The Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to discuss an anti-crisis economic program for Ukraine at its meeting next Monday, well-informed IMF sources told TASS on Wednesday.

However the Board’s official schedule has no such item.

Initially, the IMF Board of Directors was to discuss the Ukrainian anti-crisis program at its meeting on March 20. The meeting was expected to conclude the third review of the program and sanction another loan tranche to Ukraine worth one billion U.S. dollars. However a day before the meeting, the discussion was postponed for an indefinite date.

Later, experts said this decision had stemmed from the transport blockade of Donbass and Ukraine’s sanctions against banks with Russian capital. Ukraine’s President Pyotr Poroshenko admitted openly that his country needs the IMF tranche "like air to breathe" as it is linked with the European Union’s macro-financial assistance.

The IMF launched a four-year 17-billion-U.S. dollar loan program for Ukraine. Under the program which is reviewed every three months, Ukraine was to receive eight tranches in 2015-2016. Ultimately, Ukraine has received three: five billion U.S. dollars, 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, and one billion U.S. dollars, with the last tranche extended in September 2016. Ukraine’s National Bank hopes to receive this year six tranches from the IMF and the European Union to a total sum of six billion U.S. dollars.