Ukraine to receive $300 million loan from Japan
Ukraine and Japan have ratified a loan agreement in the amount of $300 million. The credit funds should go to Ukraine in April, 2016.
This is the second Japanese loan to Ukraine for economic reforms, said Natalia Jaresko, Minister of Finance of Ukraine, during a joint press conference in Kiev on March 4th with Japanese Ambassador Shigeki Sumi. Interfax-Ukraine quoted Minister Yaresko as saying “In April we hope to receive the loan funds in one tranche, which will be directed to the General Fund of the State Budget.”
Jaresko reported on the Ministry’s Twitter page that the conditions of the Japanese loan are “incomparably better than the terms on which we used to take commercial debt.” The Minister said that to access these funds, Ukraine must spend on ten structural reforms, especially those aimed at preventing tax evasion. The loan is granted for 20 years with a grace period of six years with an interest rate of LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) plus .5 percent, which currently amounts to less than one percent per annum.
Last month, Jaresko warned that the International Monetary Fund, a critically important lender to Ukraine may refuse lending if the current government resigns.