Accessibility links

Breaking News

Ukraine Expects Remaining $12B of Russian Bailout in Early 2014


FILE - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov gestures while speaking during a cabinet meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013.
FILE - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov gestures while speaking during a cabinet meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013.
Ukraine expects a $15 billion bailout package from Russia to be fully disbursed in early 2014, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Wednesday after Kyiv received the first $3 billion tranche.

Russia agreed to bail out Ukraine by purchasing its sovereign bonds after Kyiv performed a sharp foreign policy reversal and refused to sign deals on political association and free trade with the European Union in late November.

Russia told Ukraine on Tuesday it had transferred the first $3 billion tranche of the bailout. The bailout is widely seen as part of plans to keep Kiev firmly within Moscow's orbit.

“We expect the remaining $12 billion in the beginning of next year,” Azarov told a government meeting on Wednesday.

The deal with Russia sparked large-scale protests in Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered every weekend on Kyiv's main square to demand the government's resignation.

President Viktor Yanukovich, however, has largely ignored their demands and pressed ahead with the Russian rapprochement, securing, in addition to the bailout money, a sizeable discount on the price of natural gas imported from Russia.

“The Russian loan is a critical factor in stabilizing our state finances and economy,” Azarov said on Wednesday.

Ukraine's current account and budget deficits have been growing for the last few years as the government stuck to a pegged exchange rate and continued to subsidize gas and heating prices for households.

Azarov also told the government meeting that Ukraine's economy, which grew 0.2 percent in 2012, would remain flat this year.
  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG