The Ukrainian Finance Minister, Oleksandr Danylyuk, expects pension reform to be completed in August, followed by another IMF tranche and a return to the bond market for Ukrainian sovereign bonds.
“It doesn’t look like it is going to happen so they (parliament lawmakers) will have to finish the work in early fall (autumn),” Danylyuk said in an interview.
“We need to invest more time in communication … both in the public domain but also within the parliament. Yes, the parliament is pretty much ready to vote for it but everybody needs to comfortable…Whenever we complete it we will get the (IMF) tranche.”
Danylyuk also said that the hope for a $1 billion bond offering in the next few months could be unrealistic until pension reform is complete. “I think $500 million will go,” Danylyuk said.
“For us it is important to be ready and we are ready. We are in a position to issue tomorrow, as by the way we could have done it back in April. The question is do we need it and if we expedite the process, what would we get from that.”