OREANDA-NEWS. The mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after working in Kiev left with a positive signal, and Ukraine expects that a new loan program with the Fund for a period of three years can be launched before the end of the current one. This was announced on Friday by Prime Minister of Ukraine Alexey Goncharuk.

“We are determined to start a new program for three years this year”, he said, speaking about cooperation between Ukraine and the Fund in the framework of preparing a new macro-financial assistance program. According to Goncharuk, the IMF mission, which worked in September in Kiev, gave hope for this. "The IMF mission left Kiev as a whole with a positive signal", he argued, admitting that there are "certain things that Ukraine needs to be settled".

At the same time, the head of the Ukrainian government stressed that cooperation with the Fund for Ukraine is important not only because of the need for finances. “Of course, we are set to cooperate with the IMF. For us, this is not about money, but about trust: you all understand that cooperation with the IMF is a signal for international investors, financial institutions”, he explained.

On September 27, the IMF’s official representative in Ukraine, Ron van Roden, summed up the work of the mission in Ukraine, which lasted from September 12 to 26. According to him, the economic growth rates of Ukraine remain low due to the weak business environment, imperfect legislation and widespread corruption. In addition, the IMF mission stated that the dominance in large sectors of the economy of inefficient state enterprises or oligarchs, which restrain competition and investment, also constitutes a constraining factor. The organization also concluded that the discussion of the new assistance program requested by Ukraine "will continue in the coming weeks".