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Ukraine will not take IMF loans on unfavourable terms

KIEV, December 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine is negotiating a new cooperation programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but will not take loans on unfavourable terms, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said on Tuesday at a meeting with Ukraine’s three former Presidents, Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko that was telecast by the First National television channel.

Yanukovich said that cooperation with the International Monetary Fund had been one of the subjects he had discussed with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden over the phone. “He told me that the issue of an IMF loan [to Ukraine] had been almost settled. But I answered that if the terms were the same - to freeze wages and pensions, to increase gas tariffs - we do not want such loans,” he said.

According to Yanukovich, Kiev would resume negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and “if conditions are suitable,” the country “shall continue to walk this path.” “We have been relying only on ourselves,” he stressed.

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