A team of specialists from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by IMF Mission Chief for Ukraine Gavin Gray, begins meetings in Kyiv on Tuesday with representatives of the Ukrainian authorities and other partners about the country’s fiscal plans for the short and medium term.

“An IMF team, led by Gavin Gray, starts meetings today in Kyiv with the Ukrainian authorities and other stakeholders. The discussions will focus on the authorities’ fiscal policy plans for the remainder of 2024 and the medium term,” said Vahram Stepanyan, the International Monetary Fund Resident Representative to Ukraine.

At the end of last week, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Andriy Pyshnyy, following meetings with IMF representatives, noted that the fifth review of the EFF program with the IMF would be devoted to fiscal issues and the search for sources of financing for the next years.

On July 15, the head of the budget committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Roksolana Pidlasa, announced on Facebook about upcoming changes to the law on the state budget 2024 to cover its “hole” of UAH 400-500 billion. According to her, the issue of financing the state budget in 2025 also remains open.

According to the data available to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the government hopes to cover this year's financial gap approximately equally by raising taxes and increasing government borrowing. In particular, it is likely that it will be proposed to increase war tax from 1.5% to 5%, the possibility of increasing the value added tax is also being discussed, and it is planned to increase excise taxes on tobacco products and automobile fuel.

As reported, the IMF Board on June 28 completed the fourth review of the EFF program for Ukraine and approved the allocation of the fifth tranche of approximately $2.2 billion (SDR 1.66 billion). Based on the results of the next review, planned for the end of September, $1.1 billion (SDR 834.9 million) is expected to be raised into the budget.