Washington--The International Monetary Fund and Ukraine have extended their talks on a new financial rescue plan likely worth billions of dollars, a source close to the matter told AFP Thursday.
Discussions in Ukraine's capital Kiev were to end in the next few days, but will continue through next week at least, the source said.
"These kind of discussions require time. There's nothing unusual about it," the person said.
The previous $17 billion aid program agreed in April 2014 has proven inadequate to stabilize Ukraine's finances as the country fights a pro-Russia insurgency in the industrialized east, a fight that has left more than 5,000 dead and ravaged the country's economy.
Ukrainian officials said early this month in Davos that they were formally requesting a new IMF aid program, which would be their fourth in less than 10 years.
It could involve both more money and a longer period than the two-year term of last year's program.
No amount for a new program has been proposed, but the IMF has said the country needs some $15 billion more from all sources to keep its finances stable through the end of 2015.
A new deal between Ukraine and the IMF could also allow the country to begin talks with its private-sector creditors on lightening its debt service burden.
In a sign that Ukraine is headed in that direction, the country has retained investment bank Lazard Ltd to advise it in talks with private creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Lazard notably advised Greece in restructuring its private debt in 2012, with Athens achieving a roughly 50 percent haircut on some 200 billion euros ($223 billion) in bonds.
AFP
