Kiev---Ukraine on Friday received the first $5 billion tranche of the International Monetary Fund's bailout for its troubled economy, the finance ministry said.
"The money is arriving on the National Bank's accounts, the entire sum will arrive by the end of the day," the ministry said in a statement. It added that $2.2 billion will go to government coffers while $2.8 billion would go to the account of the central bank.
Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said Thursday that the second $5 billion tranche would arrive later this year.
The total loan from the IMF will amount to $17.5 billion, part of an international rescue package for Ukraine, whose economy has been struggling for years but is now also hit by the war with pro-Russian rebels.
The conflict has ravaged Ukraine's eastern industrial base.
As part of the IMF programme, the government is launching Friday consultations with creditors in an effort to restructure its debt to save $15 billion over the next two years.
It has until June to find a common ground with creditors, which include arch-foe Moscow.
Ukraine's economy is headed for a 5.5 percent contraction this year. The national currency has lost over two-thirds of its value over the past year.
Investment Capital Ukraine has issued a even more pessimistic prognosis, seeing a contraction by 7.6 percent and no recovery until 2017, in a note published Friday.
Continuing violence in the east, albeit at a lower level than before a February ceasefire, will additionally cause industrial production to fall by 18.7 percent, the group said, revising its earlier figure from 10.7 percent.
AFP
