The Board of Directors of the World Bank will support the reforms in Ukraine with a loan amounting to $ 500 million, which was recently approved by the board of directors of a key country for creditors, which is experiencing an economic crisis amid the armed conflict with separatists.
"We help Ukraine to implement a set of urgent measures that are needed to stabilize the economy, by providing quality services to Ukrainians and return the country to sustainable growth," - said World Bank Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine – Qimiao Fan, whose words are quoted in the press release.
Ukraine's economy, which lost last year part of its territory because of the annexation of Crimea by Russia and which continued 16 months with a war with pro-Russian separatists in the east, may fall in 2015 by 9-10 % after contracting 6.8 % in 2014.
The money that will go to the government should be used to reform the public administration sector, improve the business environment and the system of social assistance.
The World Bank made the decision after Ukraine received, in early August, the second tranche of $ 1.7 billion from the $ 17.5-billion loan program of the International Monetary Fund.
International creditors have promised over the next four years to support the reforms in Ukraine, by financing it with $ 40 billion. In addition to the IMF program, the package includes $ 7.5 billion from other lenders and $ 15 billion, which Kiev should save, agreeing with foreign creditors on debt restructuring at $ 23 billion.
The ongoing negotiations from March culminated only with the prolongation with seven years of the obligations of two state banks amounting more than $ 2.7 billion.
Kiev has threatened the creditors with a moratorium on payments, if there is no agreement on restructuring in the near future, a month before September 23 this year, when the first repayment of Eurobonds in the sum of $ 500 million will take place.