IMF demands pension & land reform, privatization, anti-corruption

During his June 20 visit to Washington, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who stressed the importance of balanced pension reform, the president’s press service reported. They also discussed state privatization prospects, Ukraine’s banking system, state finance reform and the fight against corruption, according to Poroshenko’s website.

According to the IMF press service, as cited by Interfax-Ukraine, the talks were focused on pension reform, land reform, as well as measures on speeding up privatization and securing concrete results in fighting against corruption.

Alexander Paraschiy: The press releases of the Presidential Administration and IMF reveal their differing reform priorities. In particular, the president’s press release devotes much space to pension reform, while nothing was said about the land reform that was mentioned in the IMF’s release. That might indicate the Ukrainian government is not confident about its ability to approve legislation this year launching the farmland market, which puts the next IMF tranche under risk.

Of the four items mentioned by the IMF, Ukraine has had the most success in demonstrating its anti-corruption efforts. Just this week (and perhaps in time for the IMF meeting), Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators were asked to open criminal cases against two MPs, one from the president’s own faction and the other from a coalition faction, who have been accused of taking bribes by the anti-corruption prosecutor.