At the meeting held on April 28, 2015, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriia Gontareva and Vice-President of the European Commission for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis discussed Ukraine's prospects for receiving financial support from foreign donors.
Valeriia Gontareva informed the representative from the European Commission about the economic situation in Ukraine, the regulator's monetary policy and the amount of international reserves, as well as the situation in the domestic banking sector. She pointed out that the National Bank of Ukraine is optimistic about the future and expects the economic recovery to resume as early as in the second half of 2015.
"Substantial support from the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility enabled Ukraine to embark on implementing structural reforms in our country. The National Bank of Ukraine seeks to take a lead in this process and is actively involved in efforts to reform the financial sector, reshape its own organizational structure and governance processes. We are committed to our obligations and Ukraine is on track in meeting all the requirements of the loan program," said Valeriia Gontareva.
According to her, with the money market having stabilized, the National Bank will be able to replenish its gold and foreign exchange reserves that will have reached USD 18.3 billion by end-2015, and over the next four years they may be increased up to USD 38.4 billion (by end-2019).
Valeriia Gontareva also elaborated on the phases of the transformation of the Ukrainian banking system, and outlined in detail its initial phase that would be completed by end-June 2015.
As Mr Valdis Dombrovskis emphasized, the European community is ready to provide a comprehensive support to Ukraine in its efforts to put the economy on a recovery path, implement reforms focusing on public finance management and anti-corruption, trade and taxation, the energy and financial sector reforms.
He recalled that in order to stabilize the situation in Ukraine, the European Union had approved three macro-financial assistance packages worth a total of EUR 3.41 billion to our country. The financing under the first and second Macro-Financial Assistance programmes had already been disbursed to Ukraine.
On April 15, 2015, the European Parliament and EU Council approved additional third macro-financial assistance programme of EUR 1.8 billion, the bulk of which will be disbursed in 2015.
In conclusion of the meeting, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriia Gontareva thanked the representatives from the European Union for a constructive exchange of opinions and expressed hope that joint efforts and technical assistance from the European Union would facilitate the efficient development of Ukraine's economy, as a whole, and the banking sector, in particular.