KYIV, Jan 15 (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday said she expected to ask the Fund's executive board to approve a new $8.1 billion lending program for Ukraine in a matter of weeks, underscoring the importance of shoring up funding for the war-torn country. Speaking to Reuters after meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top Ukrainian officials, Georgieva said much had changed in Ukraine since November, when a preliminary agreement was reached on the program, but the thrust of the program's requirements would remain the same. "I'm here to see how the country is doing in these unusually harsh times, because I want to make sure that what was agreed in November is implementable as it was agreed," she said. "We recognize that the direction to travel remains the same (but) the way we take these steps, we have to calibrate carefully."
Georgieva said she told the Ukrainian authorities that they had to press forward with removing a VAT exemption for consumer goods that has run into domestic resistance. But she said the IMF would require only that the measure was introduced in parliament, not that it was already passed, before the new program could be approved.
