KIEV: The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it will only release a new tranche payment to Ukraine once parliament approves a long-stalled pension system overhaul and land privatization legislation. Ukraine has so far received only $1 billion of the $4.5 billion it hopes to see from the IMF this year. Overall, Ukraine has received $8.3 billion from the IMF since the package was approved in February 2015. Senior officials had said they do not intend to tackle the land privatization issue until 2018. “Tymoshenko might still use the land issue to call a vote of no confidence in the Groysman government—waiting for the time of optimal political tensions domestically, and land reform efforts could do the trick,” he wrote in the Kyiv Post.

Source: Manila Times May 26, 2017 09:11 UTC