The International Monetary Fund said Friday its team had ended a visit to Kiev without seeing sufficient economic restructuring progress to release a new loan to Ukraine this year. The impoverished and war-scarred former Soviet republic had been hoping to receive a $1.3-billion ($1.2-billion-euro) tranche payment in November from a rescue package of $17.5 billion agreed with the Fund in 2015.
But Kiev has only seen $7.6 billion of that money due to foot-dragging by populist lawmakers in parliament over deeply unpopular belt-tightening measures prescribed by the Fund. The IMF last released a $1-billion tranche payment in September that Kiev had expected to see last year. A statement from the Fund's mission said the pro-Western government still needed "some time" to adopt all the economic prescriptions mandated under the four-year programme. Ukrainian media reported the IMF had outlined five points that Kiev must comply with in order to receive future payments.