Speaking at a press briefing held following the official visit to the United States of America, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriia Gontareva said that she had had fruitful and important meetings with the senior management of the International Monetary Fund (hereinafter – the IMF) and World Bank Group, other international financial organizations and donors, investors, as well as governors of the world's central banks, in particular, central banks of the Netherlands, France, Poland, Georgia, Austria, Lithuania and Moldova. They all expressed commitment toward resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and providing additional assistance to Ukraine.
"Today, cooperation with the IMF remains our strategic objective. During our meeting, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said that geopolitical risks related to Ukraine and Russia's military aggression against Ukraine could pose a threat to international security and global economic growth. It is important that international investors, the IMF, the World Bank, and the U.S. Government are well aware of this threat. I would like to say that I have never seen such unprecedented support that we have received today from all the people we communicated with in the USA," emphasized Valeriia Gontareva. The Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine said that at the meeting with representatives of the IMF and World Bank the Ukrainian side suggested that all the currently ongoing financial assistance programs for Ukraine should be merged into a single platform to achieve greater coordination of all the projects operating in Ukraine. "Apart from the Stand-By program, the World bank is running a program in Ukraine. We have also received funds under the program backed by the World Bank to support the Deposit Guarantee Fund. The disbursement of new tranches is currently being discussed. With so many various financial assistance programs operating in Ukraine, we believe it is necessary to create a platform called "Ukraine". This would make it possible to assess which of the programs is the most effective in addressing pressing issues. The IMF, World Bank, EBRD, EIB, IFC, and donor countries will form the basis of this platform.
The Governor of the National Bank also noted that an IMF mission could visit Ukraine in late October or early November to assess the economic situation in Ukraine and, if required, identify the need to expand financial support for Ukraine.
“Mr Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF's European department, once again has emphasized that our program is firmly on track and all the program targets have been met and, if required, financial support could be increased from all sources,” said Valeriia Gontareva.
According to her, other international donors also advocated additional financial support to Ukraine. In particular, energy infrastructure projects worth USD 3 billion were on the meeting agenda with representatives of the European Investment Bank.
International investors, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation intend to float bonds in the Ukrainian market. “The EBRD and the IFC plan to provide loans in our national currency. To this end, they plan not only to float local securities in the Ukrainian market, but also to use hryvnia-currency swap operations and repo operations with the National Bank,” said Valeriia Gontareva.
According to Valeriia Gontareva, the EBRD has prepared a new comprehensive program for Ukraine. The President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, said that EBRD's programs primarily target areas that need reforming. “In our country this program envisages participation in recapitalisation of Ukraine's banks, provision of trade and financial support to Naftogaz of Ukraine NJSC, projects with Ukrzaliznytsia (the Ukrainian Railroad), and creation of the direct investment fund to make investments in the authorized capital of Ukrainian venture companies,” said Valeriia Gontareva.
Valeriia Gontareva had an important meeting with Governor of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Elvira Nabiullina. During this meeting, the governors of the central banks of both countries discussed the possibility returning of cash assets of the National Bank to Ukraine and the fate of assets and liabilities of our banking system in Crimea. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation raised the issue of reimbursing the Russia's Deposit Insurance Agency for amounts it had paid out to the Crimean depositors. In this regard, we have agreed to set up an ad-hoc bilateral working group. “As you know, UAH 3.9 billion is kept in the Crimean vaults and I have been reassured that the money is in place. Therefore, we have discussed how we could get our money back, as well as NBU assets left in the Crimea,” said the Governor of the National Bank. In her turn, Elvira Nabiullina restated that undercapitalized Ukrainian banks with participation of Russian capital would be given an additional capital injection in full.
The Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine met with George Soros, who is initiating a donor conference with the goal of raising funds to restore Donbas.
In conclusion, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriia Gontareva once again put an emphasis on the importance of consolidated and concerted efforts of all branches of power. She emphasized that: “The National Bank of Ukraine is a regulator that has a toolkit at its disposal to address temporary balance of payments imbalances. However, the financial stability of the market can be achieved only through concerted efforts by all branches of power, including the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economy, and the revival of industrial production”.