Ukraine speaker expects vote to replace NBU head on March 1

Andriy Parubiy, the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, told
journalists on Feb. 22 that a parliamentary vote to replace the National Bank
(NBU) head is preliminary scheduled for March 1, according to the
Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The only candidate for NBU head is currently
Yakiv Smoliy, who has served as its acting head since May 11, after the current
NBU head Valeriya Gontareva left for vacation. The president’s nomination of Smoliy in January
was supported in early February by the parliamentary banking and financial
committee, which clears the way for a vote for his candidacy in parliament.
Recall, as of early February, Parubiy estimated a lack of votes in the
parliament to support Smoliy’s nomination.

Alexander Paraschiy: Parubiy’s expectations for a March 1 vote are consistent with his
statement made on Feb. 5 that the vote will occur in the session week
starting Feb. 27. So far, there is no clarity on whether Smoliy’s candidacy
will draw a parliamentary majority of at least 226 votes. Therefore, we do not
share Parubiy’s optimism that voting will occur in the next week.
Nonetheless,  we see Smoliy being approved as the NBU head this spring,
assuming that Ukraine will be able to agree with the IMF on outstanding issues
that are preventing disbursement of the fifth tranche under the EFF program.