Poroshenko signs law to extend land moratorium

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed into law on Oct. 28 an extension of the moratorium on the free trade of agricultural land for one more year until Jan. 1, 2018, his press service reported. The initiative was supported by a vast majority of the Ukrainian parliament on Oct. 6.

Alexander Paraschiy: Poroshenko’s endorsement of the moratorium was in line with our expectations. Thus far, we have seen no negative reaction to this initiative from the IMF, which stipulated that submission of a draft law to open up the agri-land market would be one of the key structural benchmarks to be considered before issuing the next loan tranche to Ukraine, possibly as early as this year. In our view, that means the IMF doesn’t oppose a moratorium for one year in and of itself. All the IMF is requiring is merely the submission of a draft law, even if it won’t lead to the launch of a land market until only ten years down the road. In other words, we do not expect the moratorium to threaten further successful cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF.